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The concept of Village Phone is an idea which caught people’s imagination. Grameen Bank members have entered the age of information technology by leasing and purchasing cellular phones. The mobile phones not only create a new business opportunity for the poor, but also bring access to information, market, health and other services to the remote rural areas of Bangladesh. This was a major innovation; placing modern cell phones in the hand of the woman from poorest households in remote villages, something that no telecom operator had dared to do in the past.

With Grameen Bank financing a Grameen Bank borrower buys a mobile phone to become the Telephone Lady of the village. She provides the telecommunication services to the village while earning profits for herself. By the end of 2012, there were about eight hundred forty one thousand village phone ladies who have together taken loans amounting to BDT 2.68 billion.

The demand of the Village Phone services is increasing day by day. During the year 2012 nearly 377,429 new phones were distributed. Grameen Bank, in collaboration with Grameen Telecom (The company which was incorporated as a not-for-profit venture under the companies act of 1994) has made a plan to finance nearly 205,000 new phones to its members during the next year. The additional income by selling telephone service and internet based facility through electronic recharge system (ERS, EDGE,/GPRS) of village phone ladies is almost double that of the national per capita income. Zone-wise statistics of village phones financed through the Bank’s lending programme are given below.