Bangladeshi villagers with mobile phones helped build a thriving $200m company. What is the lesson for the rest of the world? This book answers this question through the story of Iqbal Quadir, a local entrepreneur.

Bangladeshi villagers sharing cell phones helped build what is now a thriving company with more than $200 million in annual profits. But what is the lesson for the rest of the world? This is a question author Nicholas P. Sullivan addresses in his tale of a new kind of entrepreneur, Iqbal Quadir, the visionary and catalyst behind the creation of GrameenPhone in Bangladesh. GrameenPhone a partnership between Norway's Telenor and Grameen Bank, co-winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, defines a new approach to building business opportunities in the developing world. "You Can Hear Me Now" offers a compelling account of what Sullivan calls the "external combustion engine" - a combination of forces that is sparking economic growth and lifting people out of poverty in countries long dominated by aid-dependent governments. The "engine" comprises three forces: information technology, imported by native entrepreneurs trained in the West, backed by foreign investors.

Preface.The Author.Introduction: The Three Forces of External Combustion.Part I: The GrameenPhone Story.1. Connectivity Is Productivity2. Dish-Wallahs of Delhi (and Other Early Models).3. Cell Phone as Cow: A New Paradigm in Search of Investors.4. On the Money Trail in Scandinavia.5. Building a Company.6. Building a Network.Part II: Transformation Through Technology.7. Wildfire at the Bottom of the Pyramid.8. Cell Phone as Wallet.9. Wealth Creation and Rural Income Opportunities.10. Beyond Phones: In Search of a New "Cow."11. Eyeing the Dhaka Stock Exchange.Epilogue.Notes.Resources.Index.