Live from a FICCI organized seminar on Rural Connectivity in India Sanjay Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer for Mobile Services at telecom operator Bharti Airtel said that company will focus on three key services for Rural India - enabling Livelihood, Education and Healthcare. Gupta called mobile connectivity in Rural India the next Harit Kranti (Green Revolution). Gupta shared several examples of a video study in Rural India about the issues some existing consumers face, of users who Have to go to another nearby village to even charge a mobile handset, and pay Rs. 20 to use a battery to recharge the phone -- just because neither village as electricity. Feel uncomfortable talking to Airtels customer care executives - because they're speaking in English, or just because the phone is being answered by a woman Have to travel 15km to recharge top-up their account (thanks Shefaly) a mobile handset because of distribution issues Find the IVRS menu confusing, and end up buying products by accidentally activating services that they did not need. Another indication of issues with rural outreach was outlined by Prakash Ranjalkar, COO of GTL Infrastructure, who said that even to operate telecom towers, because of lack of rural electrification, they need to transfer diesel 30 km twice a day. Sanjay Gupta outlined the following issues that need to be dealt with. The first challenge is to network rural markets. The challenge is not as much in the network, but in the infrastructure to connect villages. Also, mobiles are not…
