Infocomm plans rural kiosks

Telecommunications and internet major Reliance Infocomm is undertaking a project to provide information kiosks and high-speed public tele-information centres (PTICs) at block headquarters and in villages with a population of more than 2,000.

A kiosk comprises a multimedia personal computer with an Internet connection and is owned and operated by rural entrepreneurs, to ensure better customer interaction.

Sources said that these centres will be rolled out in a phased manner to cover 1 lakh villages over the next three years. The project is said to cover nearly 48 per cent of the total rural population in the country.

The demand for these kiosks and information centres is set to rise with the Union Budget directing banks to increase the flow of credit to rural India.

In fact, private sector ICICI Bank is looking at setting up distribution networks, augmented by village-level internet kiosks to increase its flow of rural credit.

Bank officials said that they would look at entering into a partnership with Reliance Infocomm, once these centres have been set up as it improves the bank's rural connectivity.

The bank has already entered into partnerships with channel partners like Drishtee Dotcom, N-Louge and COMAT among others. The bank aims at financing not only the kiosk operator, but also providing financial services which can be offered by the kiosk operator.

Participants like internet service providers, public-private-partnerships, agri-business corporates and other private companies are promoting an infrastructure of village-level kiosks across India.

ITC, n-Logue, Drishtee Dotcom, COMAT and Development Alternatives (Tara Haat) have built internet kiosks using technologies such as wireless-in local loop (WILL) and Vsat terminals.