Thursday, June 05, 2008

Why mobile penetration in Rural India is slow?

Now everyone is sure (may not be as much as I am) that mobile is a revolutionary thing and it would effect the person even who sits at the bottom of the pyramid (that includes every baby, poor, rich, old, female etc on the earth). However Indian carriers such as Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone, Tata Indocom, Reliance etc could not find a way reach rural Indians. They all want to make sure that peasants on their roll but without a clue.

Although rural people are more social and so, would obviously love the Mobile compared to their urban counterparts. So what's stopping them? Let me look at the reasons behind the less penetration in Rural India. Clues are mentioned in the bracket.
  • Although mobile appears like a easy thing to use, for most of rural Indians it is a tough nut to crack (training is needed)
  • keypads are very uncomfortable (keypad should have common standards and language one is much comfortable to educated people)
  • Good plan, in turn selecting a service provider, is virtually impossible to decide (easy plans are needed)
  • Electricity outages/load shedding makes it a relatively less useful one (good battery power is needed)
  • Signal unavailability (towers are needed)
  • Affordability of the service (keep the plans using the data the way they use it)
  • Data services are not targeted at right audience (rural semi-educated)
Reach me, to find a clear-cut solutions. My contact details are on the top of the sidebar on this blog.

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