Foto de stock - Sitting with her friend Nasrin in Fatema’s combined bedroom_kitchen, Salima speaks to her husband, who works in Singapore With postal service slow, landlines unbuilt and e_mail beyond their reach, the mobile phone is the best way for people in rural Bangladesh to connect with friends and family who have moved away Dhaluarchar, Bangladesh 2000 Fatema comes from a poor family in the village of Dhaluarchar, in Bangladesh In 1998 she bought a cell phone, through a nonprofit program set up by Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank, in partnership with a cellular company called Grameen Phone Their aim was to sell mobile phones to rural women to provide them with a business opportunity and link their neighbors to the wider world Fatima took out a loan for $400 from Grameen Bank, on a payback system of 400 taka a week, about $8, over four years She paid off the loan in one year Her income exceeds $700 a year, in a country where the annual per_capita income is about $300 Today, in her mid_30s, Fatema is one of Dhaluarchar’s most prosperous residents Much of this she owes to her mobile phone