Bengal villages get connected, with a little help from an NGO

‘‘Ninety per cent of the GSS scheme is in West Bengal, and 90 per cent of that is being run by Grasso,’’ said Rajya Sabha MP and CPI-M leader Nilotpal Basu who runs the NGO.

The GSS scheme, which began with the idea of employing rural postmen to carry mobile phones from door-to-door in 12,001 villages, eventually became a logistical nightmare in billing and collection for BSNL. So, it tapped into the 7,000-strong network of self-employed people that Grasso uses to carry phones to far-flung locations.

The results have been spectacular. Grasso — subsidized by BSNL for the GSS scheme — has provided mobile reach to 93 per cent of West Bengal’s 34 Blocks, 46 per cent of its Gram Panchayats and 14 per cent of its villages. ‘‘The only limitation is that BSNL’s network does not work in certain shadow areas, which has stopped Block coverage from being 100 per cent,’’ says Basu.

The Grasso success story has become a role model for BSNL to regularise its GSS pilot scheme and take it countrywide. It has already roped in NGOs in Orissa, though none has reached West Bengal’s scale. ‘‘West Bengal has been the most successful state for GSS. We are ready to regularise the scheme as soon as possible,’’ says AN Rai, DDG (Rural Networks), BSNL.

It’s working because ‘‘In Bengal’s village haats, vegetable and fish sellers are carrying the BSNL mobile phones around and letting people make calls,’’ he adds. But when you ask Basu, he avers that the secret behind Grasso’s success is West Bengal itself: ‘‘Although its tele-density is below national average, West Bengal has a strong rural market. Five of the top ten districts are in West Bengal,’’ he says.

According to Vinod Vaish, telecom secretary at the time when the scheme was launched, the power and road situation in a state do matter as far as success of such schemes. ‘‘The phone is carried from a larger village to smaller villages on foot or by bicycle and the phone instrument does need to be charged. It will, therefore, do well where the facilities are available, but success also depends on the interest taken by stakeholders,’’ he says.

Post-launch surveys by BSNL also agree. Not only are the traffic volumes far higher on GSS mobiles in West Bengal than on individual mobile connections, their recovery rate is also nearly twice the usual (45 per cent in rural areas) at close to 98 per cent.

‘‘The findings show that individual connectivity is important, but needs to be substituted by community access,’’ explains Basu.

Besides, the structure of GSS also seems to have won favour. Apart from reserving 10 per cent of its rural network capacity for Grasso, BSNL offers a 25:75 revenue share in its MoU signed in 2003.

Grasso’s annual turnover is Rs 20 crore, though it is cash negative after making an investment of Rs 50 crore till date. Basu feels the revenue-share with BSNL ‘‘is too low’’ by today’s standards, since it costs Rs 5 to generate a single bill and the same amount to collect charges.

To supplement income, Grasso has asked the Department of IT to bring its Common Service Centres to West Bengal, under the National E-Governance Action Plan. ‘‘Voice and data are both very important for development. There is a need to properly dovetail community mobile services with ther network-based services,’’ avers Basu.

New plans, new partners

Grasso is in talks with Microsoft, IBM, Wipro and TCS to support the common service centres (CSCs) in the state’s 3,357 gram panchayats. ‘‘The plan is to have 3 GSS phones in each panchayat, totalling 12,000 phones, resulting in 100 per cent telephone coverage. All the companies are interested in the scheme,’’ says Basu.

The CSCs are to be a hub for about 20 services, ranging from electricity bill payment, tea and coffee to commodity trading, warehousing and cold storage. ‘‘We have a contract with HLL to supply 1,000 tea and coffee vending machines in the 417 R1 conglomerates. The idea is for people to get all essential services in one place,’’ says Basu.

Each centre will cost Rs 1,000 to run every month and Rs 35,000 for all people manning them. West Bengal plans 500 such centres by 2007.