Bringing Internet to the people

To foster the benefits of the Internet, several awareness generating audiovisual presentations were shown to children and youth and they also actively learned to know Internet first hand. This was a learning experience for all the participants as it enlightened them about a life-changing tool – the Internet.

It was an awe-inspiring atmosphere that spread throughout the nation in 1,000 educational institutes due to the Grameenphone-Prothom Alo Internet Utshab.

Low Internet penetration in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the seventh-most densely populated country in the world. However, it has the lowest internet penetration throughout Asia Pacific. Only a meager 4% – 6% of the total population of Bangladesh has access to reliable Internet services.

Inspired by a desire to increase the growth of penetration throughout Bangladesh and bridge the digital gap, Grameenphone in association with one of the most prominent Bangla daily newspaper Prothom Alo launched the Grameenphone-Prothom Alo Internet Utshab last year to spread the power of Internet amongst the youth of the nation.

Support from the minister

The Ministry of Science, Information and Communication Technology were supporting the event as the strategic endorser while Opera Software was the browser partner.

The grandeur festival kicked off at the Nababganj Pilot High School in Dohar in September 2011 and trailed away into the rural and semi-urban locations of Bangladesh chanting away the slogan “Let’s see the world now”.

Mobile-based Internet competition

The major highlight of the entire event was the mobile-based Internet competition “i-Genius”. In this elating competition, all the contenders answered several Internet-related questions by browsing the web.

The competition was a test of nerves and skills and provided moments of anxiety, exasperation, thrill and jubilation amongst participants and crowd alike. However, in the end only one was declared as the “I-Genius” of the event and was considered as the Local Internet Ambassador responsible to spread the benefits of the internet within the community.

I-Genius Grand Master 2011

Chowdhury Sadid Alam from Gopalgonj Government Bangabandhu College triumphed and was declared as the i-Genius Grand Master 2011. He was awarded an education grant of BDT 100,000 from Grameenphone along with a study trip to Oslo, Norway for visiting Telenor and Opera Software Headquarters, sponsored by Opera.

Chowdhury Sadid Alam was completely overwhelmed with emotions at his victory. On the occasion he said, “I am extremely happy to have won the title. My parents and teachers are extremely proud of me. I thank Grameenphone for this amazing opportunity which will add tremendous value in my life and assure all that I will do my best to spread the power of internet throughout the society.”