Ericsson brings video-conferencing to PCO booths with 3G services.
Sukha Ram, like most labourers from Bihar, migrated to New Delhi to work as a rickshaw puller. Back home in Begusarai, his family had been struggling to cope with life in his absence. However, for Sukha Ram, his wife and two children, the world around them is fast changing with Ericsson’s “Ammne Saamne” launched in August — now, he regularly uses a video-conferencing facility from a PCO near his house in Mayur Vihar. Ram is ecstatic: “I can see them when I talk to them. It is indeed an emotional moment, every time we talk.”
The Swedish company is trying to address the latent need among migrants to keep in touch with their loved ones, through the project through shared video telephony. The project is in its pilot phase and uses eight PCO booths – four in New Delhi and the rest in Begusarai in Bihar – equipped with 3G-enabled video phones. The shared business model, using PCOs, enables a vast majority of the rural and urban migrant population to access video conferencing facility at an affordable rate.
Ericsson, a strategic partner for 3G roll outs for telecom operators like BSNL, Aircel, Airtel and Vodafone among others in India, feels that this business model can help PCO booth owners to revive their business with minimum cost for setting up the infrastructure. The PCO owners need to invest in a 3G SIM card (pre-paid plans start at Rs 149; exclusive of Rs 500 for activation) and 3G-enabled phone (prices start at about Rs 5,000).
The initial response to the pilot has been encouraging. On an average, 20 calls are made per week. PCO owners charge Rs 1/min at both calling and receiving ends and the average time spent by the customer is about 4 minutes.
With 70 per cent of India’s population living in rural areas and accounting for over 60 per cent of the growth in mobile telecommunication, P Balaji, vice-president, communication corporate affairs and business development of Ericsson India is confident that they can make a success out of this pilot. He reasons, “India has 5 million PCO’s, which are rapidly diminishing with increasing 2G penetration. The PCO with a video phone can bring down the entry cost barrier to 3G and give a chance to the declining PCO business.”
Telecom major Ericsson, which has networks covering the entire north-east, had also signed an MoU with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) enabling its students access to course web pages, enable file downloads for assignments and video clips over 3G networks of BSNL and MTNL.
