Tata Indicom has partnered with SNDT Women’s University, Atom Tech (Any Transaction on Mobile), Mumbai, & Indian PCO Teleservices Ltd to develop and disseminate mobile education, an additional vehicle in distance learning, to reach the masses for remote teaching and learning in rural communities and physically challenged.

“Under this model, the mobile phone undergoes a metamorphosis—from a device that allows you access to voice and text messaging, it transforms into one that helps you access accredited educational content, take mock tests on the move, regardless of geographies or physical constraints.” [source]

SNDT University will develop the content, Atom tech will provide the interface, Tata Tele will be the carrier and the service will be distributed using IPTLs Pay Phones’ Welfare Association and 500,000 constituent members.

A classic case of how different entities can come together to boost educational ecosystem – call it power of mobile penetration (CDMA to be precise?) or big money@BoP.

Rural India is a big opportunity for Indian Telecom operators and all players are engaged to make the most out of it:

• Reliance Communications launched Live Mandi in collaboration with commoditiescontrol.com, a mobile service through which farmers can get real-time prices of commodities on their mobiles. The service is available on Reliance’s GPRS portal, Reliance Mobile World, accessible in 10,000 towns and 300,000 villages.
• Bharti Airtel, which recently reached the 50-million subscriber mark, is also setting its sight on rural customers to continue the momentum. Though the company has not specified its plans, it will focus on local content and services for these customers. It is also planning a WiMax service to provide wireless Internet connectivity in rural areas.
• Reuters, which recently launched its news portal in India, has come out with a mobile information service, called Reuters Market Light (RML). RML has been tested since April 2007 among 7,500 farmers in Maharashtra;
• Ericsson inaugurated its Gramjyoti Rural Broadband Project in September. The project is now in place in 18 villages and 15 towns in Tamil Nadu. The project is utilising the WCDMA or HSPA technology – an evolved version of the commonly used GSM technology used by mobile operators – to provide internet connectivity. (The project) involves creation of a self-sustaining rural communication ecosystem that provides benefits from applications like e-governance, telemedicine, e-learning, entertainment, video conferencing and surveillance to rural communities
• Reliance Money is also setting up 10,000 kiosks in the country to provide financial information [source]

What’s your take?

Tags: Indian Telecom Industry, tata