Mamun Sir was talking about Iqbal Quadir, the man who started Grameenphone, bringing connectivity to rural Bangladesh. He went to Swarthmore and Wharton, both schools I wish I could have gone to. 
Anyway, his story is inspiring, and so here’s how it’s told in good old wikipedia:
“
Quadir’s vision, which was deemed radical at the time, was to create universal access to telephone service in Bangladesh and to increase self-employment opportunities for its rural poor. In 1993, Quadir started a New York-based company named Gonofone (Bengali for “phones for the masses”), which later became the launch-pad for GrameenPhone. Currently the largest telephone company in Bangladesh with nearly twelve million subscribers, GrameenPhone provides telephone access to more than 100 million rural people living in 60,000 villages and generates revenues close to $1 billion annually. With infrastructure investments of more than $1 billion, GrameenPhone is providing cellular coverage throughout Bangladesh.
Quadir’s vision of a large-scale commercial project led him to organize a global consortium involving Telenor, Norway’s leading telecommunications company; an affiliate of micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank in Bangladesh (winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize); Marubeni Corp. in Japan; Asian Development Bank in the Philippines; Commonwealth Development Corp. in the United Kingdom; and International Finance Corp. and Gonofone in the United States. He attracted these investors by complementing his vision of connecting all of Bangladesh with a practical distribution scheme whereby village entrepreneurs, backed by micro-loans, could retail telephone services to their surrounding communities. In fact, Quadir coined the phrase ‘connectivity is productivity’ to explain the unique impact of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), particularly mobile telephones, in improving economic efficiency. [1][2][3]
GrameenPhone’s success has been lauded as a model for a novel approach to improving economic opportunity and connectivity and empowering citizens in poor countries, through profitable investments in technology. According to Economist Jeffrey Sachs GrameenPhone ‘opened the world’s eyes to expanding the use of modern telecommunications technologies in the world’s poorest places.”
Read the rest here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqbal_Quadir#Recognition
For more:
http://www.wep.wharton.upenn.edu/newsletter/fall04/connections.html
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July 3, 2008 at 4:22 am
I read somewher that in 2015 they plan to get 100 million people of Bangladesh cell phones. A very ambitous plan but looking at the aggressive modernization and reduction of poverty it’s looks like reality.
July 7, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Oh yes, that is totally achievable here. Everyone has a cellphone. The paradox is Bangladesh has a great deal of connectivity and then again it doesn’t. The quality has to improve if we want real modernization!