INDIAN VILLAGE GIRL USES A MOBILE PHONE TO TALK TO HER FAMILY MEMBERS FROM MADHABPUR,...

Pratima Mandal, a 19 year old Indian village girl, uses a WLL(Wireless Local Loop) mobile phone to talk to her family members from Madhabpur village, while other village women wait for their turn, 100km south (62miles) from the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, capital of West Bengal state, on August 3, 2003. Non-governmental organizations are distributing mobile phones to a select number of villages in the remote areas of the state to improve connectivity. Those who get the mobile phone will charge other villagers for making and receiving calls. At the end of June 2003 there were 15.15 million mobile phone users in India, 106 percent more than at the end of the same month last year. REUTERS/Sucheta Das JS/TW