GENEVA – The Broadband Commission for Digital Development says that high-speed, high-capacity broadband connections to the Internet are integral to future global development.
The Commission met in a private session Tuesday in Geneva to discuss improving the delivery of services across a huge range of social and business sectors, and accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It will present two reports to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on September 19 at an official side event of the UN MDG Summit in New York.
The first report will include a series of recommendations designed to serve as a global blueprint for rapid broadband development worldwide, while the second report will take into account local needs, financing constraints and technical hurdles, and make practical proposals on possible routes towards deployment of ubiquitous high-speed networks at affordable prices in every country worldwide.
“The global deployment of broadband networks will be as powerful a transformational force for the 21st century as the progressive installation of electricity networks was in the first decades of the 20th century,” said ITU secretary-general Dr. Hamadoun Touré, in a statement. “Just as connection to the power grid is now seen as a basic element of social and economic empowerment, so ubiquitous connectivity to broadband networks will be vital to the ongoing development of every nation worldwide.”
