Purnima Mandal, a housewife, uses a WLL (Wireless Local Loop) mobile
phone to talk to her brother from Madhabpur village, while other
villagers look on, 100km south (62miles) from the eastern Indian city
of Calcutta capital of West Bengal state, on August 3, 2003.
Non-governmental organizations are distributing mobile phones to a
select number of villages in the remote areas of the state to improve
connectivity. Those who get the mobile phone will charge other
villagers for making and receiving calls. At the end of June 2003 there
were 15.15 million mobile phone users in India, 106 percent more than
at the end of the same month last year. REUTERS/Sucheta Das

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