Grameen Foundation

SUMMARY Concero Connect is a newly formed Grameen Social Business that seeks to bring the benefits of broadband to the impoverished and underserved in the developing world. As a start-up, we are working to develop our messaging and our public presence. Web development is underway, but we require the special skills of a marketing professional who can translate the business and technical content into a compelling story. Marketing experience and copy editing experience are required to be effective in this volunteer role. Spanish would be a wonderful bonus as we are working in Mexico and hope to have a parallel web site in Spanish. Translation skills would greatly benefit this effort. BACKGROUND Concero Connect delivers radically affordable broadband connectivity through a network of micro-franchisees to the impoverished and underserved in order to create opportunity, improve quality of life, and enhance livelihoods. Concero Connect uses state of the art, patented satellite technology to reduce the cost of broadband by a factor of at least 50, breaking the affordability barrier for those in the developing world and creating business opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs. Concero Connect will provide broadband connectivity through infrastructure deployment at costs significantly lower and at speeds greater than any option currently available. Concero Connect’s base offering will be for broadband speeds of 1M upload and 3M download for a monthly subscription fee of $30. Concero Connect seeks to address economic and social challenges associated with poverty. Working through and with local franchisees and a network of micro-franchises, Concero Connect will enable access to telecommunications services; education; healthcare; information and knowledge; and government and financial services on a fee-for-use transaction basis. CHALLENGE As a start-up Grameen Social Business, we are seeking organizations who would like to work with us on the fulfillment of our mission. We are as yet, unknown and we would like to get the word out there that there is someone actively working on this challenge. Our web site and our ‘one-pager’ are our two primary means of achieving this. We do not have a large staff (in fact, at this time it is just the CEO / Founder) working on operations, investment, communications, partnering and so on, and so any assistance would be greatly appreciated. ? There is an enormous disparity in access between the developing and developed worlds. Africa has one fixed broadband subscriber per 1000 people (ITU, 2008). In addition to the huge access disparity, the price for broadband remains prohibitively high in most developing countries, effectively limiting participation in the Information Society. One of the main reasons for the glaring inequality between the developed and developing worlds is the massive disparity not just in price but in affordability for a broadband connection. ? Broadband subscriptions cost less than 1% of GNI in the top 15 countries surveyed by the ITU. For those 30 lowest countries in the survey – most of which are LDCs – broadband subscriptions cost over 100% of GNI per capita. ? From the developing world’s uptake of mobile telecommunications services, we can extrapolate a huge demand with evidence of an ability to pay. ? Concero Connect’s offering is truly disruptive and will create new markets and expand existing markets. Concero Connect’s broadband connectivity solutions will be significantly more affordable than existing offerings and will make ownership and access affordable to those in the developing world – hundreds of millions of people. ? Build broadband networks and everything else will follow: (ITU, 2010) ? The ability to control and use energy more efficiently ? The ability to manage healthcare in poor, aging or isolated populations ? The ability to deliver the best possible education for future generations ? The ability to better care for our environment ? The ability to streamline transport networks ? The ability to extend the reach and diversity of financial services ? And, crucially, the ability to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals. ? “Broadband will allow people in rural and remote areas to access state of the art health facilities and also ensure that students around the world will have access to the best universities at their fingertips” Dr. Toure, UN ITU Secretary General PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES The Volunteer will work with the CEO to refine the primary marketing materials – the one page summary of the company and the business plan. The volunteer will also work with our web developer to develop content (text, photos, graphics, video, etc…) for the company web site. Deliverables: • Refined Business Plan • Refined One-Pager • Content for Web Site o English o Spanish (if possible) TIMELINE AND LOCATION The volunteer can work remotely and will interact with the CEO and with the web developer via the internet and video / telephone conference calls. It is expected that this project will happen during the month of January and into February of 2011.