Net and phone connection for every man and woman

Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala from IIT Madras heads the TeNet research group and focuses on developing low cost communication products. He has helped in starting a number of product companies, the latest one being n-Logue which wants to fulfill the need for Internet and voice services in every underserved small town and village in India. Their technology works on the CorDECT Wireless in Local Loop system developed at TeNet. Using the traditional PSTN landline, it costs Rs.30000 per landline installation, but n-Logue can do it for less than Rs.15000. Furthermore, they can setup an Internet and public phone kiosk for Rs.40000, equivalent to hardly $800. Professor Jhunjhunwala has a vision of having these kiosks operate on a model similar to the PCO model advocated by Sam Pitroda where the kiosk operator derives a small percentage of revenue from each phone call or Internet session that kiosk hosts. As this article says, the technology is no more experimental, but has been deployed in 11 countries already. Is this the answer to ubiquitous phone coverage in India? The links are as follows:

Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala
TeNet research group
n-Logue
To every man (and woman) a Net connection