NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - A Digital Alladin's Lamp for the BoP? - Comments

cost?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:38:42 -0500

The technology that InternetSpeech has created does sound like it would have potential for the poor. A couple of questions though: Firstly, the cost of the cheapest package seems to be $14 per month, plus $20 initiation fee. Will this cost go down in the future, because most of the world's poor wouldn't be able to afford this? Secondly, from what I have read, the technology that makes this possible has been patented. Does this mean that only InternetSpeech will ever be able to do this, and if so, will they ever target the poor (because they don't seem to currently). Which relates back to question one really, because if they have the exclusive rights to produce this, will the price go down enough? I guess my question really is, yes the technology seems to have potential, but does it have potential in terms of business and sustainability for the developing world's poor?

Interesting

Rishabh Kaul — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:26:02 -0500

Sounds very interesting. It'll be great if the website doesn't end up acting like the middlemen. The people in the rural regions can really benefit from such a thing for its using online technology to provide locals with customers who are willing to pay for the products worth. I'll surely keep a lookout for this venture. Rishabh Kaul Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership-BITS PILANI www.celbits.org

A Digital Alladin's Lamp for the BoP?

Francisco Noguera — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:23:31 -0500

A new wave of Internet connectivity for the BoP is under way by means of making the Web audible.

Internetspeech has developed a technology that makes the Internet accessible over the phone. That's right. Just a phone line and your voice; no keyboards, no screens and no literacy required.

Click here to listen to a demo while you read the rest of the post.

The model is similar in concept to Question Box, and would allow a potentially large segment of the BoP to benefit from the access to information and a global marketplace that the Web offers.

(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue.)