The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan
ITU’s e-post venture with the Universal Postal Union
E-mail first
ITU 020079
ITU 020077
Children playing
computer games at the Atsara Internet café in Thimphu, and a user at the
multipurpose community telecentre in Jakar
Photos: Brij
Kothari |
If there is one element of the digital
revolution that is adding value to the lives of the digital haves, it is
arguably, electronic mail (e-mail), as distinct from the Internet. E-mail
fulfils a basic human need: to communicate. A first goal may be to
provide cheap, reliable, and affordable e-mail access to every citizen, without
the need for individuals to be literate, computer-literate, or knowledgeable in
any particular language. If illiterate, below average income people can have
others write letters for them in their own language/script which they can later
drop off at a post office or in a letter-box for delivery at an affordable
price, they should be able to do the same electronically at a fraction of the
cost of an ordinary letter and delivery that is several times faster and more
reliable. These are precisely the benefits enjoyed by the digital haves and can
also be extended to every citizen. Higher order digital access can then build
upon this basic digital access. The facilities, once established, can be used to
provide Internet access to various users.
ITU and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in their pursuit to
launch joint projects that bring the benefits of digital technology to the
population in rural and remote areas announced a new venture on 26 March 2002
during the third World Telecommunication Development Conference in Istanbul
(Turkey). The two organizations have agreed on a three-year joint project that
will bring e-mail and e-post services through post offices in the developing
world. India’s Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Post are
potential partners in this project.
UPU is particularly concerned with modernizing the postal
network. Bhutan will be the first country to benefit from this project. A
powerful rationale for the project is that the post office, more than any other
institution, has a presence in people’s lives even in the remote corners of
Bhutan. Everyone can be said to visit the post office at some time or the other.
Taking this proposal as the starting point, ITU conducted a feasibility study of
establishing telecentres in post offices, especially with a view to suggesting
services and applications that these telecentres could offer effectively and in
a sustainable manner. This approach attempts to touch every person in Bhutan
digitally.
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Consultations were held with the top-level management in
Bhutan Post, Bhutan Telecom, DrukNet, Bhutan Telecommunication Authority, the
Royal Institute of Management, and the National Technical Training Authority. In
addition, a survey was conducted in post offices with the logistical support of
Bhutan Post to determine the possible needs of people that the post office could
embrace through the proposed telekiosks.
The project envisages the establishment of telekiosks to
facilitate e-mail and e-post in the country. E-post links those who have access
to the Web and those who are outside. Electronic communication can be sent to
those who do not have connectivity.
ICT: A recent entrant in Bhutan
The ICT revolution that has
swept across the world began touching the general population of Bhutan
only in the late 1990s. Access to television, telephony and the Internet
are all relatively new entrants when compared to other nations in
the Indian subcontinent. But even in the infancy of ICTs in Bhutan, a very
clear and wide digital divide is already emerging. While it may be argued
that this is inevitable, it is the contention here that the divide, if it
has to be there, can be bridged considerably, mainly through policy
initiatives that uphold the principle of equal access to the benefits of
ICTs. By the principle of equal access, one means access in terms of
technology, language, literacy, and economic means. The nascent policy
framework for ICTs in Bhutan has the advantage of incorporating the
principle of equal access from the very beginning, something, that
is likely to become increasingly difficult as systems and frameworks
expand. |
“Bhutan has limited transport infrastructure, which makes
postal delivery very difficult: letters can take up to eight days to be
delivered between distant mountainous districts,” says Dasho Meghraj Gurung,
Managing Director of Bhutan Post. “E-Post can usher in a faster, more reliable
and cheaper mode of communication as compared to the physical transportation of
a letter. It can also bring down Bhutan Post’s operational costs and open up
the possibility of revenues from electronic messaging.”
ITU 020045/PhotoDisc |
“The post office, more than any other institution, has a
communicative presence in people’s lives,” said Thomas E. Leavey,
Director-General, Universal Postal Union. “If every letter in Bhutan can be
guaranteed to be sent from post office to post office electronically and then
home-delivered by the local post office within two days, it would constitute a
revolution in letter-writing or message exchange.”
Sangay Tenzing, Managing Director of Bhutan Telecom adds: “Rural
coverage is negligible in our country. Collaboration with Bhutan Post will
provide a basis for aggregation of demand and expand rural coverage.”
Bhutan Post would issue for free, a unique e-post address for
every household or even person with proper verification. The e-post address will
be an e-mail address that also includes in a coded form, the postal address,
similar to a pin or zip code that uniquely identifies every household. Once an
e-post address has been obtained, a person should be able to walk into any post
office and send e-mail anywhere. He or she would also be able to send e-post,
which would be printed at the receiving end by a local post office and delivered
to the postal address coded in the e-post address. Since the printing is at the
local post office near the point of delivery, all e-posts can be delivered
within the time taken for local delivery.
“ITU’s initiative will promote close cooperation between
Bhutan Telecom and Bhutan Post in the nation’s effort to bridge the digital
divide and in its own small way, promote the Gross National Happiness,” added
regulator Thinley Dorji of the Bhutan Telecommunication Authority.
Bhutan Telecom will provide the communication access from the
local exchanges for the venture. It is envisaged that at least six remote post
offices would draw on VSAT connectivity operating on Bhutan’s use of Intelsat
transponder, expanding the existing demand-assigned multiple access (DAMA)-based
coverage. The project also seeks to introduce technologies such as hand-held
multimedia devices and software that enable translation into local languages
that could overcome barriers of illiteracy, computer literacy, language and
costs. All of these facilities would become a community access centre and a
resource for local schools, hospitals and local administration.
In the second and third years, the project envisages
connecting five community mail offices located in remote locations through a
VSAT system. These five locations are in northern and north-eastern Bhutan, at
altitudes between 3500 to 5300 metres above sea level. The population of the
villages, dependent on subsistence farming and animal husbandry, ranges from
1000 to 3000. At present, these villages are served by “postal runners” —
a one way trip taking any where between three to seven days on foot.
Survey of postal clients
ITU conducted a feasibility study
to establish telecentres in post offices. A survey of visitors to
the post offices revealed that one of the primary reasons for which people
visit the post office is to check for and collect their mail, as delivery
services tend to be concentrated in urban areas.
In the event of e-mail services, they may well extend
their visit to collecting e-mail. The survey also showed that the purposes
for which people have to travel long distances at considerable cost
include banking, medical assistance, market prices of agricultural produce
and obtaining government forms. Therefore, banking services through post
offices is clearly an area worth exploring further, as is providing
government forms, information on market prices and health.
The average distance to the post office from most
people’s homes was found to be 11.2 kilometres. About 59 per cent of the
postal clients use English as the language of correspondence while 29 per
cent mentioned English and Dzongkha. Any software that serves postal clients
must be at least in these two languages. Some 78 per cent of the survey
respondents say they have access to a telephone. There was scope for
marketing the post office as a place to make phone calls. Only 8 per cent of
the postal clients using computers enjoy the benefits of e-mail.
Internet services have been available in Bhutan since
June 1999, DrukNet being the sole Internet service provider. DrukNet
is a subsidiary of Bhutan Telecom and has about 1236 connections in the
country. The price of connectivity is the same anywhere in Bhutan, with two
access numbers, 100 and 101, billed as local calls. According to Ganga R.
Sharma, Manager of DrukNet, although the growth of connections has surpassed
expectations, a plateau effect or drop in new connections is inevitable
considering that there are only around 8000 to10000 computers in Bhutan for
an officially estimated population of 7 million people.
Private access to the Internet among the population is
estimated to be lower than one in a thousand, with most users being
institutions and expatriates. Ten Internet cafés operate in the country,
but the connection charges (USD 1.25 for 20 minutes) put public access
beyond the reach of even above average income Bhutanese. At this rate, most
people in the developed world would probably start restricting the number of
e-mails they could afford to send. According to Mr Sharma, the only way
forward to increase the customer base seems to be to reduce the price of
connectivity, which DrukNet is seriously contemplating, and increase
computer literacy and awareness of IT across Bhutan.
Low access to telephony and unstable power supply also
militate against the spread of ICTs in rural areas.
Some 81 per cent of the postal clients in the survey
happened to be male, with an average age of around 34 years.
Farmers and housewives together constitute only 8 per
cent of the people surveyed, the bulk being government employees. Even
people in business made up only 11 per cent of the survey.
Women, farmers, people with low incomes and education,
and generally younger people below 25 are underrepresented visitors to the
post office. The survey concludes that efforts that provide ICT services
through the post office will necessarily have to attract these groups in a
focused and creative manner. |
Hand-held devices
“Bhutan has limited transport infrastructure,
which makes postal delivery very difficult: letters can take up to eight
days to be delivered between distant mountainous districts...
If every letter in Bhutan can be guaranteed to be
sent from post office to post office electronically and then
home-delivered by the local post office within two days, it would
constitute a revolution in letter-writing or message exchange.”
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A rather weak postal delivery system from
the destination post-office to the addressee means that people are already in
the habit of visiting or sending someone to the post office to check their mail.
The e-post system needs to facilitate an existing postal agent’s or a regular
mail person’s access to a community’s, family’s, or group’s collective
e-post. He/she can then take it to the village/community in electronic form. The
ability to bring and take a village’s collective e-post to and from the post
office in an electronic form is crucial for the majority of the people who
seldom make the trip to the post office. As the survey points out, women,
farmers, relatively poor people, and people living at greater distances from the
post office were significantly underrepresented among postal-clients. Because of
their social disadvantage, they are also disadvantaged in terms of access to
communication, including postal communication. If these groups are also to be
served by e-post, then a simple portable electronic device that acts as an
e-post carrier will be an invaluable asset.
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