万花筒2007-12-22:New Zealand Quake 占领印度农村手机市场

There are a few things that are really important to Manish Chhikaria, his crop, his fields, his mobile phone, when he runs out of fertilizer, or needs a spare part, a quick call to his father back home takes care of it.

It’s so much better than having a landline, he says, so he's disconnected his , most of his neighbors just use mobile phones too. 70% of the people in this small sleepy North Indian village have cell phones. 8 million people sign up for mobile phone connections in India each month making it the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. Now much of that growth comes from here, from rural India, and this is where big Telecom firms want to be.

India’s largest mobile phone operator Bharti Airtel is targeting this market aggressively with a colorful marketing¹ strategy. Its vans go from village to village, belting out Bollywood style music, announcing cricket² scores, offering freebies, in between, they get people to sign up.

There are no bridges, in many parts of our country, roads may be absent, train connectivity may not be there, but mobile connectivity is there. So we are, actually, bridging that divide, and really bringing the urban and rural of India together

It’s not all for a noble cause of course. Airtel Calls are targeting villages, because that’s where the majority of India's more than 1 billion people live.

It’s not just that the rural India needs telecom facility; it’s also that the telecom companies need to get into rural areas to further increase their revenues³. To capture this market, said Seth, companies must keep prices low; Airtels said its tariffs⁴ are less than 2 cents a minute.

Sure, mobile phones are pricy, said the head of the Chhikaria family, but it means his can stay in touch with his relatives in the city. Gone are the days of a letter a month, and that he tells us is priceless. Mallika Kapur, CNN,Haryana, India.

1 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

2 cricket   

n.蟋蟀，板球运动；adj.公平的

参考例句：

• The England cricket team scored quite a useful total.英格兰板球队得分总数令人满意。
• We could hear the shrill of the midsummer cricket.我们可以听到仲夏时节蟋蟀的尖叫声。
• Your behaviour isn't cricket.你的行为不光彩。

3 revenues   

收入( revenue的名词复数 )； [复数]总收入； 收入来源； 税务局

参考例句：

• Revenues from oil are the biggest single component part in the country's income. 来自石油的收益是这个国家收入中最高的一项。
• Under the cash basis of accounting most receipts of money are revenues and most expenditures of money are expenses. 按现金收付制规定，企业收到的现金大都作为收入处理，付出的现金大都作为费用处理。

4 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。