Broadband Targets for 2015 – Target 3: Connecting homes to broadband.

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development has agreed on a set of four ‘ambitious but achievable’ new targets that countries around the world should strive to meet in order to ensure their populations fully participate in tomorrow’s emerging knowledge societies.

Target 3: Connecting homes to broadband. By 2015, 40% of households in developing countries should have Internet access.

1. Access to broadband or the Internet at home is the most inclusive way of bringing people online. At  home, all household members can have access – no matter whether they have jobs, go to school, are male or female, children, adults or elderly.
2. Research has shown that children with Internet access at home perform better in school. And children using the Internet at home are usually under parental guidance and therefore better protected against online dangers.
3. In developed countries, more than two thirds of households already had Internet access at the end of  2010, compared to around 16% of households in the developing world. This is likely to increase significantly by 2015, especially with the rise of mobile Internet.
4. This target includes access via both fixed and mobile networks.

“These targets are ambitious but achievable, given the political will and commitment on the part of governments, working in partnership with the private sector,” said Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary General, who serves as co-Vice Chair of the Commission alongside UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. The Commission is co-chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Carlos Slim Helú, Chairman and CEO of Telmex and América Movíl.

For more information please visit: Broadband Commission for Digital Development website

Download: Broadband Targets 2015

Fourth meeting of the Broadband Commission

The fourth meeting of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development was held just prior to the Broadband Leadership Summit on 24^th October, 2011 in Geneva, which welcomed over 250 government and industry leaders from around the world to exchange views on the challenges and opportunities of ‘a future built on broadband’.

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development has agreed on a set of four ‘ambitious but achievable’ new targets that countries around the world should strive to meet in order to ensure their populations fully participate in tomorrow’s emerging knowledge societies.

The new targets cover broadband policy, affordability and uptake:

1. Making broadband policy universal. By 2015, all countries should have a national broadband plan or strategy or include broadband in their Universal Access / Service Definitions.
2. Making broadband affordable. By 2015, entry-level broadband services should be made affordable in developing countries through adequate regulation and market forces (for example, amount to less than 5% of average monthly income).
3. Connecting homes to broadband. By 2015, 40% of households in developing countries should have Internet access.
4. Getting people online. By 2015, Internet user penetration should reach 60% worldwide, 50% in developing countries and 15% in Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

For more information please visit: Broadband Commission for Digital Development website

Download: Broadband Targets for 2015

e-Waste: whose responsibility? 

While increase in access makes innovation and  digital opportunity available, it also spews poison in the  form of electronic waste, or e-waste. This is because  the sharp increase of e-waste has not been matched  with policy and regulatory mechanisms designed to cope with the influx of e-waste in developing countries generated from usage within and from illegal trade related dumping. Huge populations and the environment are now unduly exposed to the  devastating effects of unmitigated handling of e-waste. This dismal situation spins a tragic story for many in the developing world who unknowingly make a choice  between poverty and poison. Unfortunately, many  people who have to pay the price never get to have a say in the matter. Indeed, ICTs have become so integrated with our  way of life to the extent that they are identified as a primary tool of getting certain things done.  Governments all over the world have identified ICTs as a key element in the delivery of services to their citizens  and in the expansion of business as they seek more  prosperity for their citizens. The uptake of broadband  networks (which provide high speed access to the Internet) is pushing for the replacement of massive copper infrastructure. It is also leading to adoption of a multiplicity of electronic devices, prompting consumers to buy a new phone, a new computer, a new program which will become obsolete by the time we can figure out how to install it. A newer, better, and more  expensive version will be already on the market, lessening the value and the appeal of versions released just prior. The statistics on mobile broadband penetration in 2010 demonstrate a growth in uptake globally. The same upward trend in Internet  penetration in households by level of development  attests to the steady adoption of these new technologies by both the developed and developing countries in 2010. E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams today and it is growing at three times the rate of municipal waste globally.

For more information please visit ITU GSR11 website and  discussion paper e-Waste: whose responsibility?  by Mercy Wanjau, Principal Legal Officer, Communications Commission of Kenya.

Broadband Enabled Innovation

Innovations do not happen in a vacuum. Nor do people and firms innovate alone but instead do so within a reciprocal system of interactions and relationships with customers, vendors, external research and development organizations, even sometimes with competitors. These networks create and move the knowledge and skills associated with new technologies and organizations. Studies of national innovation systems have sometimes put too much focus on formal research and development and high technology science-based innovation. In this framing, innovation only happens at the bleeding edge of invention. But such a narrow focus is not always the best way to think about national innovation systems, especially in the developing world. While every country has some form of innovation system, rarely do they behave the same or innovate in the same ways. In order to ensure that innovation system policy is relevant to the developing world, the concept needs to be broadened to include:

1. All sectors (for instance agriculture, service sectors, as well as manufacturing);
2. All aspects of innovation (including diffusion, imitation, and appropriation);
3. Both indigenous knowledge and the mastery of imported technologies and knowledge;
4. All forms of learning (including on-the-job and informal training, learning by doing, using, and interacting);
5. Not just the reproduction and refinement of a national innovation system, but also its construction in places that have little extent systems;

Wider living circumstances and how they affect learning and innovation and ensure that innovation corresponds to local conditions and needs.

For more information please visit ITU GSR11 website and Broadband Enabled Innovation discussion paper by Michael L. Best, Associate Professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology M. Zak Taylor.

Open Access Regulation in the Digital Economy

From a wide-ranging review of theory and practice for the open access regulation, the following conclusions may be drawn:

• Open access is critical for facilities which have the characteristics of economic bottlenecks - i.e. they facilities that cannot be economically duplicated.
• In the digital economy the scale and scope of investment in national broadband networks means that these resources cannot be viably replicated, so open access is necessary.
• Where public funds are committed to broadband infrastructure investment, there is further justification for open access arrangements to maximise the economic benefits across as broad a base of users and suppliers as possible.

• Countries with mandated open access to broadband infrastructure supported by Government-led initiatives to stimulate demand will be in the vanguard of the digital economy.

For more information please visit ITU GSR11 website and Open Access Regulation in the Digital Economy discussion paper by David Rogerson, Director, Incyte Consulting.

Strategies for financing Universal broadband access 

Three particular models continue to stand out – equity investment, private public partnerships (“PPP”) and financial incentives. The mix of approaches and where they are best applied has however changed mainly in light of experience over the years with more infrastructure PPPs and USAFs as a means of providing financial incentives, amongst others. 

 Universal Service and Access funds are considered an independent and transparent mechanism to implement and maintain universal service and access initiatives while continuing and promoting market reforms. The objective of USAFs, which typically offer once-off, start-up subsidies for designated areas, is to finance the expansion and/or maintenance of designated networks/services on a geographic, population or other basis that would not otherwise be commercially sustainable.

Commercial sustainability is determined through economic analysis prior to project development, and in specific the assessment of market gaps. USAFs provide financing primarily through subsidies in order to compensate designated universal service providers who have in most cases elected to provide the identified networks and services in return for a subsidy or special regulatory, policy or licensing concessions.  Technology evolution and the deployment of NGNs will lower the costs of communication for users and, ironically, will also in all likelihood erode the revenue base (mainly operator levies) used to fund universal service and access programmes.

As a starting point, that a public financing mechanism is introduced in a liberalized market indicates the existence of a market access gap – a gap between what the private sector can deliver and what is needed by the public – arrived at through a thorough analysis of the relevant market based on national definitions of universal service and access and agreed targets in a country. The premise of universal access projects is that they are deployed in high risk areas or to low income users and communities where without a financial incentive to invest, operators or other suppliers will not provide the services. As such, creative public or public private partnership (“PPP”) financing models are required to encourage the rollout of networks and services in such areas and in so doing meet the socio-economic objectives of the country.

For more information please visit GSR11 and read GSR11 discussion paper on “Strategies for financing Universal broadband access” by Mandla Msimang, Managing Director of Pygma Consulting.

This paper deals briefly with universal service and access concepts and principles, but is concerned primarily with the financing of universal access.

Smart Regulation to promote worldwide broadband roll out - Global Symposium for Regulators 

The 11th ITU Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) held in the city of Armenia- Colombia from 21 to 23 September has brought together heads of national regulatory authorities from both developed and developing countries. 
The theme of the event was “Smart Regulation for a Broadband World”. In an era in which broadband is increasingly considered the right of every citizen, “smart” regulation was advocated to encourage greater openness and use of incentive dynamics to mitigate the challenges and threats posed by a rapidly changing ICT landscape.

GSR participants focused their attention on innovative regulatory measures needed to promote the roll out of broadband and address the complexities and challenges of the broadband ecosystem.

Examining the complexities of the broadband ecosystem, GSR participants focused their attention especially on themes:

1. M-banking services and the role of regulators
2. Wireless broadband spectrum pricing
3. Satellite regulation
4. Open access regulation
5. Setting national broadband policies, strategies and plans
6. Financing universal access/service
7. E-waste and recycling and the role of regulators
8. Protecting rights, such as intellectual property, of all stakeholders in a digital ecosystem
9. Regional initiatives to foster broadband connectivity

For more information and documents please visit GSR11 website.

Broadband prices drop by more than 50% - by ITU Price Basket

The overall fall in prices for fixed broadband services is mainly due to price decreases in developing countries, where the fixed broadband sub-basket dropped by 52%, compared to 35% in developed countries - data from ITU’s 2010 ICT Price Basket (IPB). However, it should be noted that steep price drops often reflect the extremely high cost of broadband in developing countries. Even at half the price, the service is often still far beyond the pockets of average citizens. The top countries with the relatively cheapest broadband prices are all high-income economies and include many of those ranked at the top of the IPB overall: Monaco, Macau (China), Liechtenstein, the US and Austria. Customers in 31 countries – all of them highly industrialized economies – pay only the equivalent of 1% or less of average monthly GNI per capita for an entry-level broadband connection. In 32 countries, however, the monthly price of an entry-level fixed broadband subscription corresponds to more than half average monthly income. In 19 of those countries, a broadband connection costs more than 100% of monthly GNI per capita. And in a handful of developing countries the monthly price of a fast Internet connection is still more than ten times monthly average income.