Transcript Slide 1

BBC Janala
Prepared for:
mBillionth Award South Asia 2011
BBC World Service Trust Concord IK Tower, 7th Floor, CEN (A) 2,
Gulshan North Avenue, Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212
Phone: +8802 9890233, +8802 9891147, +8802 9891879
E-mail: [email protected] www.bbcworldservicetrust.org
A decade of transforming lives through media
Project Concept
BBC Janala uses mobile technology to enable millions of people to learn English in a simple and affordable way.
The service was developed in partnership with BBC Learning English and has turned the mobile phone into a lowcost education device offering hundreds of 3 minute audio lessons and SMS quizzes at a cost of just 50 paisa (half
a pence) per minute to the 50 million mobile users in Bangladesh today. With the slogan “if you want to, you can
do it”, BBC Janala is designed to improve users’ English language skills and confidence to learn. By simply
dialling the short code 3000, mobile users can learn with new classes arriving each day ranging from ‘Essential
English’ for beginners to ‘Grammar and vocabulary through story-telling’ for those more advanced.
The service targets Bangladeshis aged 15-45, living on less than £2 a day. There is a major demand for English
skills in Bangladesh. Baseline research revealed that 84% of adults wanted to learn English, but at the time of
project inception, English was the most commonly failed exam in the country. BBC Janala is part of English in
Action, a major initiative launched to raise the language skills of 25 million people in Bangladesh by 2017, funded
by the UK’s Department for International Development. The English lessons accessible through mobile phones are
also available through audio lessons on the BBC Janala website, WAP site, CD-ROMs and printed lessons in a
leading National daily.
A decade of transforming lives through media
Technical Details and configuration
•
BBC Janala utilizes the following platforms/technology:
Mobile IVR and SMS, WAP, Web, CD-ROM and printed media.
•
Feature list for Mobile services:
– IVR
• Dial in and listen
• Dial in, listen and record feedback
• Dial in, listen and order through SMS
• Dial in, listen and play language quiz through DTMF
– SMS
• Play language quiz through SMS push pull mechanism
• Send feedback through SMS push pull
– WAP
• Download audio lessons only through 3 clicks
• Play language quizzes in the WAP site
• Send feedback directly from WAP site
• Available both in xhtml and wml
• Home page is in Bangla (although Bangla font is not supported in WAP/mobile browsers)
• Content are free to download
• Accessible through the simplest WAP enabled mobile handsets
• Breadcrumb for easy navigation
• Ultra light weight (average page weight 27 kb) for less mobile data consumption
A decade of transforming lives through media
Technical Details and configuration (contd…)
•
Hosting and Integration mechanism for Mobile service: A mobile solution provider is the technical partner who hosts and
manages the services. The platform is easily scalable to support the growing mobile user base.
•
Integration mechanism:
– IVR: handset independent
– SMS: handset independent
– WAP: available for any WAP enabled handsets
•
Coverage area: available through any mobile operator across Bangladesh where mobile network is available.
A decade of transforming lives through media
Project milestones
Project launched:
November 2009.
Other milestone:
Initially the cost of the IVR and SMS service was BDT 1.00 and 0.50 respectively. In November 2010,
the tariff was reduced to BDT 0.50 and 0.40 for IVR and SMS respectively, making the service more
affordable.
Mobile Phone
Web
CD ROM
Newspaper
Medium
Reach 2011
BBC Janala
mobile IVR
lessons
BBC Janala WAP
site
Used by 4 million
people making a
total of 13 million
calls to the
service.
More than
200,000
downloads
through the WAP
site.
BBC Janala
Website
BBC Janala CD
ROM
880,000 visits to
the website
65,000 copies of
CDROM have
been sold in 5.5
months
A decade of transforming lives through media
BBC Janala
Prothom Alo
lessons
The printed lessons
in the National
Daily ‘Prothom Alo’
reached 1.9 million
people
Target Segments
Mainstream Youth
(10.8 million)
Busy Mid Level
Merchant
(4.8 million)
Educated
Materialist
(2.3 million)
Women at home
(2.3 million)
A decade of transforming lives through media
Information on nomination and nominee
Nomination category:
m-Education & Learning
Name of the project:
BBC Janala
Nominee:
BBC World Service Trust
Contact Person:
Charlotte Imbert, Country Director.
Address:
IK Tower (7th floor). CEN (A) 2, Gulshan North Avenue,
Gulshan-2. Dhaka 1212. Bangladesh.
Telephone:
Fax:
Email:
+8802 9890040
0088029890233
[email protected]
A decade of transforming lives through media
Analogy
BBC Janala is the first service of its kind anywhere in the world. An Analogy is therefore not
applicable at this time.
A decade of transforming lives through media