NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Imagine that you live in the village of Siroha, located just 25 miles from Kanpur, the largest city in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. Your son has moved to Delhi for a job with the GE call center serving American customers. If you want to speak to or e-mail him, you must ride your bicycle five miles and lose half a day’s wages to find a telephone. Welcome to the digital divide.
The digital divide is a fact of life for the 700 million rural people in India who have an average annual GDP per person of less than $500. Neither state-run nor private telecommunications efforts have found an economical way to serve these people. Until now.
Story available here.