The Grameenphone Community Information Center is a shared premise where rural people may access a wide-range of state of art services such as Internet, voice communications, video conferencing and other information services. This initiative by Grameenphone is in line with the company's objective to serve local community needs by:
- Bridging the "digital divide" by providing information access to rural people
- Alleviating poverty - Educating the underserved and underprivileged on information-based services
- Building local entrepreneurships and improving capacity
- Creating employment opportunities for the unemployed youth
CICs are a unique business model that has won appreciation from the International community, such as from the Washington Post, from UNDP, as well as the blessings of several International bodies like Katalyst and the GSMA.
The pilot project started in February 2006 with 16 CICs; today the project has become a massive operation with over 500 CICs operational in nearly 450 Upzilla's.
The short-term plan of this initiative is to establish at least one CIC in each of the 462 Upazilla's. In the long-run Grameenphone plans to increase the number of CICs substantially so that very CIC can support the information needs of four adjacent villages.
Download the CIC Model description here.
Visit the GP CIC Site for more details.