Kevin Kelly gives us a blow by blow account of a speech made at the Long Now Foundation about decentralising control, the Gameen Bank and how that has helped local and poor populations presented by Iqbar Quadir
Quadir’s vision, which was deemed radical at the time, was to create universal access to telephone service in Bangladesh and to increase self-employment opportunities for its rural poor. In 1993, Quadir started a New York-based company named Gonofone (Bengali for “phones for the masses”), which later became the launch-pad for GrameenPhone . Currently the largest telephone company in Bangladesh with nearly sixteen million subscribers, GrameenPhone provides telephone access to more than 100 million rural people living in 60,000 villages and generates revenues close to $1 billion annually. With infrastructure investments of more than $1 billion, GrameenPhone is providing cellular coverage throughout Bangladesh.
Kelly writes
In 1993 when Quadir began, Bangladesh had one of the lowest penetrations of telephones on the planet -- only one phone for every 500 people. GrameenPhone project unleashed 25 million phones. Today there are 100 times as many phones, or one per 5 people. Just as Quadir had envisioned, this decentralized connectivity has increased productivity. Without connectivity people waste a lot more time on economic errands. With cell connectivity farmers maximize their profits by getting real-time prices at distant markets; shepherds can call a vet, or order medicine. One study concluded that the total lifetime cost of an additional phone (including the cell tower and switching gear) was about $2,000, but that each phone enabled $50,000 of increased productivity. And surprisingly, the poorer the country to begin with, the greater the increase in wealth from connectivity.
Iqbal is currently investigating whether energy can also be dethroned from its current mode of extremely centralized generation.
And on this blog all 400,000 words of it, relates to the centrality of networks, social engagement and how that is shaping and changing our world. And why we need to comprehend the principles of: trust, co-operation, sharing, co-creation et al are still the basic tenets of successful societies.
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