Broadband internet: civic Right?

ITU asks nations to make access
to broadband civil right for
citizens by 2015
By Olubunmi Adeniyi
September 27, 2010: Secretary-
General, International
Telecommunication Union (ITU),
Hamadoun Toure, has challenged
global leaders to make broadband
connection a basic civil right for all
people in the world by 2015.
Toure threw down the challenge to
leaders especially politicians, United
Nation (UN) agency chiefs and industry
heavyweights at the second meeting
of the Broadband Commission for
Digital Development held in New York.
He says that “broadband is the next
tipping point, the next truly
transformational technology. It can
generate jobs, drive growth and
productivity, and underpins long-term
economic competitiveness. It is also
the most powerful tool we have at our
disposal in our race to meet the
Millennium Development Goals, which
are now just five years away. ”
The Commission outcome report which
was presented to the UN Secretary-
General, Ban Ki-moon during a side-
event held in conjunction with the UN
Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
summit includes a high-level
declaration calling for ‘broadband
inclusion for all’.
The declaration comprises a detailed
framework for broadband deployment
and 10 action points aimed at
mobilising all stakeholders and
convincing government leaders to
prioritize the roll-out of broadband
networks to their citizens.
It was concluded at the meeting that
any country that fails to embrace
broadband inclusion for their citizens
would get a stark warning in light of
huge disparities in broadband
affordability worldwide, which means
that those who can least afford it pay
the most for access, relatively slow
broadband connection costs many
times an average monthly salary.
Also, while subscribers in the
developed world, for example the UK,
US, Canada or Australia, pay under one
per cent of average national monthly
income for a fast broadband
connection, in many of the world ’s UN-
designated least developed countries,
such as Ethiopia, Malawi or Niger, even
a relatively slow broadband
connection costs many times an
average monthly salary.
Toure urges governments not to limit
market entry nor tax broadband and
related services too heavily in order to
ensure ample availability of spectrum
to support mobile broadband growth.
“The new realities and opportunities
for digital development must be firmly
fixed in the minds of world leaders as
a leadership imperative, ” he said.
While receiving the report, Ki-moon
noted the power of technology to
inject new impetus into the
development paradigm, adding that
“ Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) are playing an
increasingly important role as drivers
of social and economic development,
but it will take partnerships such as the
Broadband Commission to ensure that
those technologies live up to their
extraordinary potential.”
According to him, the Commission’s
report is an important contribution to
UN efforts to ensure that the benefits
of ICT can further the United Nations
goals of peace, security or
development for all.
Quoting suggestion of a research, Ki-
moon said “In the 21st century,
affordable, ubiquitous broadband
networks will be as critical to social
and economic prosperity as networks
like transport, water and power.
Broadband will serve as tomorrow ’s
fountain of innovation. It represents
the ripening of the digital revolution,
the fruits of which have yet to be
invented or even imagined. ”
ITU forecasts a total of 900 million
broadband subscriptions by 2010 and
predicts that mobile broadband will be
the access technology of choice for
millions in the developing world,
where fixed link infrastructure is
sparse and expensive to deploy.