Bhutan Post tests 'Simputer' for remote e-mail use

Bhutan Post tests 'Simputer' for remote e-mail use

The Simputer, a Linux-based handheld computer
designed by Indian engineers, is being deployed
in a pilot project in Bhutan to provide e-mail
to people living in remote locations, said an
executive of the Geneva-based International
Telecommunication Union.

If the test is successful, the Simputer is
likely to be deployed in similar projects
in other countries, said VishnuMohan Calindi,
administrator of the Universal Access and
Rural Communications Unit in the Telecommunication
Development Bureau of the ITU.

E-mail received by post offices in Bhutan,
located between China and India, will be
carried on the Simputer by a postal employee
to addressees in villages. The villagers will
be able to respond to e-mail using the Simputer
with help of postal agents.

The e-mail service, called E-Post, complements
traditional post under the project initiated by
the ITU and the Universal Postal Union (UPU)
in Berne. The project, implemented with Bhutan Post
and Bhutan Telecom in Thimpu, India, aims to
bring e-mail and other digital services to
38 Bhutan post offices (about one third of
the post offices).

Some of the remote post offices will be
connected by a VSAT (very small aperture
terminal) satellite service. About 17 of
these post offices already have tele-kiosks
on the premises where people can send
and access e-mail.

However, women, farmers, the poor and those
living great distances from post offices
were significantly under-represented among
postal clients, according to a survey
carried out by the agencies involved
in the project.

"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," Calindi said.

The joint ITU and UPU project in Bhutan
is a test bed for implementation of similar
projects in other countries. "About 12
countries have already shown interest in
this project," Calindi said.

"The success of this project will depend
to a large extent on our ability to train
the people at the post offices on the use
of the technology and on the receptiveness
of villagers to the e-mail concept."

The Simputer was selected by the ITU
and UPU project because of its low cost,
ability to integrate voice recognition,
low power consumption and programmability
for various applications. The plan is to
have a variety of applications running
on the Simputer to handle items such as
agricultural information, health care
data collection, simple accounting,
bookkeeping, inventory management and
land records.

"In our experience, it is important
that the projects cater to multiple
uses and feature multiple applications,"
said Calindi. "This is to make best use
of scarce resources, as well as increase
the chances of greater usage."

Although the project in Bhutan will,
initially, use 50 Simputers, the product
has great growth opportunity if the
project is extended within Bhutan and
to other countries, said Vinay Deshpande,
chairman of Bangalore-based Encore
Software, a Simputer licensee.

The handheld computer was designed by
engineers from Encore and the Indian
Institute of Science in Bangalore, and
put into open source to be managed by
the Simputer Trust. Since development
of the product's prototype in 2001,
Encore has sold only about 3,000 units,
mainly because there are too few
applications that run on the device,
Deshpande said.

Encore has positioned the device
commercially and for use to bridge
the digital divide. The company
introduced a variety of models,
ranging from the low-end with a
monochrome display, priced at
about $200, to a high-end model
with a colour display and support
for Wi-Fi and GPS that costs
about $480.

Approximately 75 independent
software companies have developed
Simputer applications, including
some for e-governance, sales force
automation and enterprise resource
planning. Encore expects to sell
more than 100,000 Simputers.

John Ribeiro, IDG News