GrameenPhone Continues to Prove Potential of Microfinance Investment

Now the illiterate poor in Bangladesh can send voice messages as cheaply and easily as text messages. Bangladesh’s largest telecommunications service provider, GrameenPhone, recently announced a Short Message Service (SMS) available to its subscribers nationwide. This new low-cost technology provided by U.S. based Kirusa, a technology company, will benefit GrameenPhone’s one million poor and illiterate customers in Bangladesh who can now send a voice message like a text message.

In the past, we have highlighted specifically that GrameenPhone is a ‘hot stock’ and generally that broad access to wireless telephony lessens poverty. Will we see more partnerships between micro-lenders and wireless providers to eradicate poverty through profits?

Additional Resources

1) Main article discussed in entry, Market Wire: “GrameenPhone Selects Kirusa Technology to Launch Voice SMS.”
2) MicroCapital Blog: “Grameen Phone—A Hot Stock.”
3) MicroCapital Blog: “The Real Digital Divide.”

Similar Posts: