Shahid: I think you have rightly pointed about farmers. They need some service/contents to be delivered through mobiles. As you have mentioned- I see that a Public Private Partnership can make this possible. For example as you mentioned the Soil condition, fertilizer availibility information could be delivered through a help line which could be set up by a private organization while the information could be supplied and validated by the Government agency. So, I see that when we have content and services the use of mobile phone could be diversified. Cheers!!

Hi Michael, The history of mobile phone is not very new in Bangladesh. In the early part of 1990s mobile phone came to Bangladesh. However, that time, license was given to just one company and naturally, the rate of owning a phone was too high and very few people owned a phone until 1996. From 1997 this sector was opened to some other companies and competition started. However, it was from 2000 that the number of mobile phones saw an upsurge. Why I am focussing on the history is that the innovation in this sector was depended on the increse of its usage. The more people used it the more demand was created. Sector specific demands were created and thus innovation took place. For example, in Bangladesh Ringtone, SMS and MMS has become very popular among the youths. In Recent times you would find Welcome tunes loaded to every phones whether he is from rural or urban. These VAS has created opportunities for SMEs. If you travel in rural areas of Bangladesh you would find a shop with a sign saying" Ringtones on UR mobile are downloded here". So, what I would point out that these mobile applications have created opportunities for the rural people to do business with Mobile phone other than normal voice use. Now, we have challenges also, how to provide VAS for illeterates those who can not write a SMS or send MMS? Text to Speach or Voice Message may be a solution I beleive. Especially the farmers would be benifited through this. To stimulate all this what I feel is more important is to aware the rural people on the technology usage- how a mobile can be helpful for the farmers or rural mass in genearl. Cheers!!

Hello every One.. I am Sultanur Reza, working in Grameenphone- the largest cellular company in Bangladesh. I am working as the Head of our Telecentre Initiative known as GP CIC. We have established more than 550 centers around the country. In fact we established more than 560 but due to different issues some of those have been shut down. So, we find it a challenge- the motivation, the awareness, content, culture, everything really matters. I strongly beleive that with the mult-stake holder partnership and with the introduction of PPP this sort of initiatives can sustain. Keeping that in mind we have started partnering with different agencies such as Katalyst. We have been very successful so far in carrying out different awareness programs- one of the keys to success. More recently, we have introduced e-Krishok (i.e; e-farmers) forum with the help of WIN and Katalyst. The Lifelines-India experience would be very helpful I beleive. I am more interested to know how mobile web and the end users can really be linked in the agri sector to improve the livelihoods. Looking forward to heraing anything from any corner of the world. Thanks BR Reza Head of CIC Grameenphone Bangladesh