VNL

VNL Wins in the m-Business & Commerce Category for the 2010 South Asia mBillionth Award 23 Jul, 2010

NEW DELHI - July 23, 2010: VNL was recognized in the m-Business & Commerce category of the 2010 mBillionth Awards sponsored by the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF). The mBillionth Award honours the potential of the mobile sector across South Asia.

The award recognises companies that best fulfill the category criteria, which is the use of mobile and complementing applications and embedded services for support and optimization of business processes and the creation of new business models in commerce like m-commerce. The mBillionth Committee chose VNL’s WorldGSM® from more than 200 nominations that were received. The nominations came from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Maldives.

About the mBillionth Award (http://mbillionth.in/)
The mBillionth Award South Asia 2010 is first of its kind in the region recognising and facilitating mobile innovations, applications and content services delivery. Its mission is to honour excellence in mobile communications across South Asia spread over nine core categories. The mBillionth Award is South Asia’s leading mobile content award aimed at a larger, regional mobile congress in media and policy advocacy.

About Digital Empowerment Foundation (http://www.defindia.net/)
The Digital Empowerment Foundation is a Delhi based not-for-profit organization that seeks to find solutions to bridge the digital divide. It was founded by Osama Manzar to uplift the downtrodden and to create economic and commercial viability using Information Communication and Technology as means.

VNL Shortlisted in the m-Business & Commerce Category for the 2010 South Asia mBillionth Award 28 Jun, 2010

VNL has been shortlisted in the m-Business & Commerce category for the 2010 mBillionth award sponsored by the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF).

The award has been instituted for projects that best fulfill the category criteria, which is the use of mobile and complementing applications and embedded services for support and optimization of business processes; creation of new business models in commerce like m-commerce, business to business, business to consumers, internet security and other areas; supporting small and medium enterprises in the marketplace, m-Banking like banking services, microfinance and micro-banking through mobile devices, etc.

The mBillionth Committee chose VNL’s WorldGSM® from over 200 nominations that were received. The nominations came from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Maldives.

The awards Grand Jury met in Colombo, Sri Lanka on June 11th and 12th to choose the final winners. Their names will be announced at the Inter Continental Hotel, Nehru Place in New Delhi, India on July 23, 2010.

About the mBillionth Award (http://mbillionth.in/)
mBillionth Award honours the potential of the mobile sector across South Asia. These phones and mobile gadgets can now do anything from allowing physicians to review patient records on-the-go, to alerting drivers in any city of nearby parking spaces while looking for a spot, in addition to the texting, surfing and calling capabilities of many of today’s phones.

The mBillionth Award South Asia 2010 is first of its kind in the region recognising and facilitating mobile innovations, applications and content services delivery. It is to honour excellence in mobile communications across South Asia spread over nine core categories. The mBillionth Award is South Asia’s leading mobile content award aimed at a larger, regional mobile congress in media and policy advocacy.

About Digital Empowerment Foundation (http://www.defindia.net/)
The Digital Empowerment Foundation is a Delhi based not-for-profit organization that seeks to find solutions to bridge the digital divide. With no political affiliations, it was founded by Osama Manzar to uplift the downtrodden and to create economic and commercial viability using Information Communication and Technology as means.

DEF’s mission is to see widespread development, use, promotion, and accessibility of affordable digital content based on cultural specifics or language necessities. The mission is to enable communities to be aware and conscious of the utility and necessity of using ICT for their empowerment.

Smartphone.biz-news.com: “Voices of the Industry” 22 Feb, 2010

MWC 2010: Interview with Rajiv Mehrotra, CEO of VNL

Watch the video interview with Rajiv Mehrotra, the Founder, Chairman & CEO of VNL, the first and only company to have found a way of building sustainable telephone networks for the three billion people (half the world’s population) who live in rural areas not covered by a mobile network.

Read the full article at smartphone.biz-news.com »

Rajiv Mehrotra, Founder, Chairman & CEO of VNL with Global Mobile Award for Best Green Programme Product or Initiative 17 Feb, 2010

Rajiv Mehrotra, Founder, Chairman & CEO of VNL. Free for press use.

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Rajiv Mehrotra, Founder, Chairman & CEO of VNL with Global Mobile Award for Best Green Programme Product or Initiative

Rajiv Mehrotra, Founder, Chairman & CEO of VNL. Free for press use.

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Live from Mobile World Congress: VNL Wins Green Mobile Award for Best Green Programme Product or Initiative

Barcelona, Spain: VNL is proud to announce the receipt of GSMA’s 2010 “Green Mobile - Best Green Programme Product or Initiative” Award during Mobile World Congress’ Global Mobile Awards Ceremony. The judges stated that selection was made based on the sheer number of people who’s lives could be changed through deployment of VNL’s technology:

“This is a real breakthrough, with potential, huge impact for billions of people in rural villages. It could have significant impact in allowing rural communities to have access to affordable mobile communications.”

Rajiv Mehrotra, Founder, Chairman & CEO of VNL accepted the award on behalf of the VNL team. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Mehrotra stated:

“Three billion people are not covered by a network. Most of these people live in areas without electricity. Our zero OPEX, solar powered GSM base stations will help mobile operators reach them affordably. Thank you to the GSMA for acknowledging our mission.”

VNL’s zero-opex solar-powered WorldGSM™ base station – developed specifically for use in rural areas where people have less than US$2 a month to spend on their phone bills was shortlisted in both the ‘best network innovation’ and the ‘best green programme, product or initiative’ categories.

VNL is the first and only company to have found a way of building sustainable telephone networks for the three billion people (half the world’s population) who live in rural areas not covered by a mobile network. Of this number, some 1.6 billion people have no electricity and another one billion live in areas with unreliable access to power (GSMA figures).

VNL’s pioneering work has been widely praised: earlier this week, Fast Company named VNL one of the “Fast 50: The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” for 2010. In December, VNL was named as a Technology Pioneer 2010 by The World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org). In September it was named the third most innovative company - and the most innovative telecoms company – in the world in the Wall Street Journal’s annual Technology Innovation Awards. In November VNL was selected as a 2009 Top Pick and named as a company to watch in the wireless infrastructure market by Light Reading, a specialist telecoms analyst and publishing house. VNL also won the “Best Technology Foresight” category at the 2008 World Communications Awards and came second in the “Green Network Hardware and Infrastructure” category at the 2009 CTIA Wireless E-Tech Awards.

For more information, visit www.vnl.in or contact VNL’s PR representative Bridget Fishleigh +44 7946 342 903, bridget@nomadcomms.com

VNL at Mobile World Congress

VNL, a pioneer in green telecom solutions, is showcasing its solar powered WorldGSM™ base station at Mobile World Congress, held at the Fira de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain, from February 15 – 18, 2010.

VNL’s exhibition space in Hall 2 at Mobile World Congress 2010.

VNL’s solar-powered WorldGSM™ base station drew crowds, as attendees from five continents visited the booth. VNL’s exhibit space introduced mobile network operators and other visitors to the world’s first completely solar-powered WorldGSM™ solution, specifically made for rural areas with ARPUs of less than $2. WorldGSM™ is the first commercially viable GSM system that is independent of the power grid. It runs exclusively on solar power and requires no diesel generator backup. It is also designed for simple delivery and deployment by local, untrained people – all resulting in zero opex, dramatically lower capex, and near zero maintenance.

Rajiv Mehrotra, Founder, Chairman & CEO of VNL discussing the benefits of the solar powered WorldGSM™ base station with a visitor to the booth.

On Tuesday, VNL was named the winner of GSMA’s 2010 “Green Mobile - Best Green Programme Product or Initiative” Award during Mobile World Congress’ Global Mobile Awards Ceremony. The judges stated that selection was made based on the sheer number of people whose lives could be changed through deployment of VNL’s technology:

“This is a real breakthrough, with potential, huge impact for billions of people in rural villages. It could have significant impact in allowing rural communities to have access to affordable mobile communications.”

Rajiv Mehrotra accepts the Green Mobile - Best Green Programme Product or Initiative Award at the Global Mobile Awards Ceremony

VNL’s pioneering work has been widely praised: earlier this week, Fast Company named VNL one of the “Fast 50: The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” for 2010. In December, VNL was named as a Technology Pioneer 2010 by The World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org). In September it was named the third most innovative company - and the most innovative telecoms company – in the world in the Wall Street Journal’s annual Technology Innovation Awards. In November VNL was selected as a 2009 Top Pick and named as a company to watch in the wireless infrastructure market by Light Reading, a specialist telecoms analyst and publishing house. VNL also won the “Best Technology Foresight” category at the 2008 World Communications Awards and came second in the “Green Network Hardware and Infrastructure” category at the 2009 CTIA Wireless E-Tech Awards.

VNL’s exhibition space featured a wall mural showcasing a live deployment of the WorldGSM™ solar powered base station in Rajasthan, India.

The next billion subscribers will be coming from rural populations, away from saturated urban markets. VNL is changing the DNA of rural telecom by providing commercially viable new building blocks that will transform the way you build your networks in the future. If you missed Mobile World Congress, you can still see WorldGSM™ for yourself before 2010 ends. VNL will be exhibiting its solar powered base station at East Africa Com in Nairobi, April 27 & 28, 2010 and at Africa Com in Cape Town, South Africa, November 10 & 11, 2010.

VNL intends to work closely with several operators on three continents to deploy solar powered WorldGSM™ by the end of the year.

[photos by Saurabh Joshi, VNL]