Broadband should be "a basic civil right": ITU

NEW YORK – Access to high-speed broadband networks should be declared a basic civil right, says the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).Speaking to politicians and United Nations agency chiefs at the second meeting of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development in New York earlier this week, ITU secretary-general Dr. Hamadoun Touré said that “affordable, ubiquitous broadband networks will be as critical to social and economic prosperity as networks like transport, water and power”.“Broadband is the next tipping point, the next truly transformational technology”, Touré added. “It can generate jobs, drive growth and productivity, and underpin long-term economic competitiveness.”The ITU also presented a...