CAIRO: Politicians and telecommunication leaders are set to meet in Geneva this week at the Telecom World 2011 conference to discuss the idea of spreading broadband coverage globally. Broadband accessibility is seen by many as a key component to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015. According to Hamadoun Touré, the head of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), broadband will be the defining technology of the early 21st century. During a conference at Geneva's Palexpo Exhibition centre on Monday, he said that he has no doubt that broadband will “revolutionize the lives of everyone, everywhere” and bring about many benefits to health care and education. “Most importantly, it will help us accelerate progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals,” he told the audience at the Broadband Leadership Summit. According to ITU statistics, more than 2.6 billion people still lack access to toilets and other forms of sanitation, while mobile phone subscriptions in the less developed nations has reached almost four billion. Broadband prices have dropped dramatically over the past decade and yet high speed internet still remains unaffordable in many countries. The average cost of broadband in Africa is 290 percent of the average monthly income. “For too long developing countries have been unable to effectively participate or contribute to the global economy simply because of their limited access to broadband,” said Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, in a video address. Rwanda's national telecommunications plan has led to a significant increase in mobile phone and internet usage in the East-African nation. Last week, the third annual West-African Information and Communications Technology Congress (WAFICT) was held in the Nigerian city of Lagos. The conference was dominated by the key stakeholders within the nation's telecommunications sector such as the global telecommunications giant MTN. MTN argued that broadband would be the next frontier to power growth in the sector over the next decade. Other companies such as Airtel believe that change is needed first within the country's policy framework first to allow for such growth. The Communications and Technology Minister, Mrs Omobola Johnson called for all the stakeholders to band together to advance the ICT development in the country. “The onus is now on the stakeholders to advance ICT development in the country. This is the time for us to work together willingly, with the zeal of overcoming the challenges ahead,” she said. The Telecommunications sector is a major growing sector in less developed countries. The demand in such places are usually very high and rarely met, creating opportunity for large telecommunications companies to make many advances. BM
