Mouse in the village

Mohammad Sadiq is busy browsing Facebook on his personal computer, so is Mohammad Jameel. Nothing unusual for these youngsters in their mid-20s accessing the social network but their location makes you say, ‘Wow, the Internet is surely transforming lives in rural areas that still lack basic facilities such as power connection and transport.

Both Sadiq and Jameel are browsing the Internet in Mangalampet, a dusty ‘selection grade panchayat' (just above town panchayat), around 220 km south of Chennai in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu.

It is a small town with 750 houses and a population of less than 7,000 people. As with the Kilakarai region of Ramanathapuram in southern Tamil Nadu, a large number of people from this agricultural town work in Saudi Arabia, the US and the UK.

What's helping Sadiq and Jameel to reach out? The youngsters say it is the broadband Internet connection provided by Chennai-based Zylog Systems India Ltd.

Biz clicks

The Internet has become a part of life for Sadiq and Jameel, and in more than 250 houses in this town. The possibilities are endless: online services, shopping, stock trading, communication, networking, games, entertainment and e-governance,

Clad in the traditional ‘lungi,' Sadiq, who has studied only up to Std 10, runs a small travel agency from his garage. Every day he books 10-15 train and airline tickets for people in the town for a commission. He has just started the online bookings and hopes that it will become a big business. He keeps in touch with friends through email and social networking. Till recently Sadiq used to travel 7 km to Ulundurpet to access the Internet from a cyber café. Today, he pays Rs 770 a month for unlimited access to the Internet at a speed of 512 kbps. He is also into real-estate and uses the Internet to access information in and around his place. He spends five-six hours everyday on the Internet. “I cannot imagine how life would be without the Internet,” he says. Mujibur Rehman, who has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, says Zylog has provided him a completely new business avenue as a business associate of the company in Ulundurpet and Mangalampet. He runs mini shuttle buses in and around Ulundurpet but is better known for providing Zylog's broadband Internet service in this small town. BSNL has a small presence while some access the Internet using USB ‘dongles.'

According to Rehman, there are 178 customers of Zylog in Mangalampet alone. Six months ago, Rehman used to operate a PCO and ISD booth, helping people in the region connect with friends and family abroad. Today he runs a small cyber café using Zylog's broadband connection. Internet users in the town are in the 20-50 age bracket, including lots of women who use video chat to speak to their friends and relatives abroad, he says.

Money transfer

Among Rehman's customers is Mohammed Jameel, a graduate in computer science. Six months ago he started using the Internet to distribute bulk email messages of various companies to a large number of people. Today, he's a franchisee for Western Union Money Transfer helping people in the town get Rs 15,000-16,000 every day. People from abroad transfer the money online while he pays the local people in Indian Rupee and gets a commission. “In the past we used to wait for days to get the money but today, thanks to the Internet, the money is available instantly,” says Jameel.

Rehman is on a six-month pack with a 256 kpbs speed. He says money transfers are effected from 16 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Kuwait and Oman. Jameel too is hooked to gmail and Facebook. “The Internet has brought in a lot of change in this town. Earlier we would hang around chatting or gossiping but now it is only the Internet,” he says.

Mobile man

It was a six-hour drive from Ulundurpet to Kovilpatti, one of the driest places in the country and famous for its safety match industry. But the drive was worth it to find out how Siva, who repairs mobile phones, uses the Internet to help people with fancy mobile phones download the Flash software.

Siva accesses the Internet for a couple of hours every day and is well conversant with mobile software that is freely available on the Internet. He charges Rs 20-30 to download the software for people who are happy to spend the money than travel to nearby cities.

In a city of nearly two lakh people, there are nearly 3,000 personal computers in this town. Zylog has its own branch in Kovilpatti with around 300 customers.

Rural – better returns

For Zylog, the returns are better in towns than cities, according to S. Baskar, the company's head for rural initiatives.

Zylog holds a category A Internet Service Provider licence. It has adopted Wi-Fi technology and under the brand name Wi5 Broadband — both wired and wireless — the service is available in six States.

The Average Return Per User in a rural location is Rs 650 compared with Rs 550 in a city. The churn rate (those who leave the brand) in rural locations is 5.20 per cent while it is 8.69 per cent in the city, he says.

Zylog has so far invested Rs 90 crore in its Wi-Fi service that was launched in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Punjab in December 2009. The service is currently available in 150 towns. Nearly 73 per cent of its presence is in the rural areas while the rest is in cities. During the current fiscal the company plans to add another 110 rural locations while it will be 40 in the cities, he says.

>raja@thehindu.co.in

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