Editing Grameenphone (section)

===Village phone===

With the help of Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom operates the national [[Village Phone]] program, alongside its own parent [[Grameen Bank]] and the [[International Finance Corporation]] (IFC), acting as the sole provider of telecommunications services to a number of rural areas. Most Village Phone participants are women living in remote areas. Village Phone works as an owner-operated [[GSM]] payphone whereby a borrower takes a [[Bangladeshi taka|BDT]] 12,000 (US$200) loan from [[Grameen Bank]] to subscribe to Grameenphone and is then trained on how to operate it and how to charge others to use it at a profit. As of September 2006, there are more than 255,000 Village Phones in operation in 55,000 villages around Bangladesh. This program has been replicated also in some other countries including [[Uganda]] and [[Rwanda]] in [[Africa]].<ref name="gsmworld">{{cite press release |url=http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2006/press06_52.shtml  |url-status=dead |title=Grameenphone Rolls Out Affordable Internet Access Across Bangladesh |date=17 October 2006 |website=GSM Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929102819/http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2006/press06_52.shtml |archive-date=29 September 2007}}</ref>