Airtel in rural push through co-op

For Narayana Gowda, a farmer of a village near Whitefield on the outskirts of Bangalore, his mobile phone will no longer be only for receiving calls. He will now be able to send text messages in Kannada, thanks to Airtel, which, in a tie up with Nokia now offers the 'Kannada handsets', targeting the rural folk.

IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL), a 75 : 25 JV between Indian Farmers' Fertiliser Co-operative (IFFCO) and Airtel, aims to help farmers make the most of mobile telephony. Through the JV, farmers and rural youth will be offered a number of services. It will be a joint marketing effort of IFFCO and Airtel.

Under this JV, for the first time in south India, Airtel, in association with Nokia is offering handsets with regional language fonts. IKSL's 'Grameena Mobile Kranthi' campaign, aimed at penetrating deeper into the state's rural market plans to make mobile telephony more accessible and affordable for rural consumers. Subscribers to the service will get five free voice messages including agriculture market information over the mobile handset.

Airtel was recently allocated additional spectrum in the 1.2-1.8 MHz frequency in 27 towns across Karnataka. "This will allow us to widen our market further in Karnataka," said V Venkatesh, CEO, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Karnataka.

Airtel's Karnataka circle being the largest of any mobile circles in the country, the mobile operator is now eyeing more of the rural market with its customised products.

Over the next six months or so, Airtel hopes to reach 20,000 villages which is 80 per cent of the population in the state. By 2009, airtel aims to cover 90 per cent of the population in the state.