A simple tin box - the purest, simplest version of the web available - has transformed the lives of villagers in rural India. Peter Lyle reports

Last November, as she listened to a conference speaker outline his vision of a future in which public-private partnerships would build thousands of sophisticated internet centres connecting remote villages to a high-speed lifestyle where they could pull up local maps on their Java-equipped mobile phones, Rose Shuman came back to a question she had been grappling with for some time.

Given all the clever people who worked in information technology, and all the enthusiasm they had for its potential to empower ordinary citizens, why didn’t more of them come up with ways of taking computers to the people that didn’t require millions of dollars, miles of cable and man-hours to realise?

It wasn’t an idle inquiry. That same month, in the Indian village of Ethida, several hours’ drive from New Delhi, the second Question Box came into being.

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Essar Group’s BPO outfit Aegis BPO Services has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Bangalore-based call center operations of AOL, a subsidiary of Time Warners. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed; sources cited the deal to be worth USD 25–30 million. The transaction is likely to be completed by end-April 2008. According to the acquisition, Aegis will deliver customer service and technical support to AOL clients. Post-acquisition, about 1,200 AOL employees in India will be transferred to Aegis. Through the transaction, Aegis will be able to improve its voice and non-voice offerings in the technology support segment as well as expand its business in India. Further, the transaction will assist AOL to focus on its core operations. Headquartered in India, Aegis is a BPO services provider with annual revenues of about USD 200 million. Its clients include American Express, AT&T, Humana, Western Union, Vodafone, and a host of other blue chip companies. The company has 25 delivery facilities across the US and India. Following this acquisition, Aegis’ headcount will moves from 19,000 to over 20,000.

Global Crossing is making it easier for enterprises to migrate from traditional telephony to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) by introducing Global Crossing Managed IP Telephony Solutions. The service enables customers to take advantage of VoIP’s enhanced capabilities and more predictable cost structure.

Using Global Crossing Managed IP Telephony Solutions, enterprises can bundle and customize the company’s VoIP service elements to save money and simplify the transition to an integrated VoIP solution. As part of the company’s VoIP Professional Services portfolio, Managed IP Telephony Solutions integrates the Global Crossing Enterprise VoIP Services portfolio with Avaya Inc.’s IP telephony hardware and software components. These bundled — yet customizable — solutions include equipment selection, procurement and installation; local, long distance, international and toll-free calling; private numbering plans, collaboration tools and other advanced features; on-site technical assistance; and remote support. Global Crossing will serve as a single point of contact for the entire cutover, including switching from existing services to VoIP and conducting employee training.
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