The Telegraph - Calcutta : Business

The Telegraph - Calcutta : Business: "Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to set up 1 lakh kiosks in villages with a population of more than 2000 to connect around 48 per cent of the rural population by 2007.
BSNL has already started the Rural Information Society Initiative (RISI), which it aims to develop to an information dissemination engine and deliver services like distance education, telemedicine and entertainment. The telecom company is in talks with private content developers to create applications for these kiosks.
�The initiative will require an active participation from all members, including service providers, application and content developers and users,� a BSNL official said. �This will help drive economic growth in rural areas and also bring the entire country under the communications umbrella.�
BSNL has already ordered CDMA equipment for about one million lines and is in various stages of implementation. These lines are capable of data connectivity up to 144 kbps and are ideal for use at the Gyan Seva Kendra (GSK) level. "