U.N.'s Broadband Commission For Digital Development Sets Target To Connect Poor To High-Speed Internet

GENEVA -- A United Nations panel has given governments a target of connecting half the world's poor citizens to broadband Internet by 2015.

The U.N.'s Broadband Commission for Digital Development also says at least 40 percent of households in developing countries should be hooked up to broadband within four years.

The panel representing industry, academia and governments issued the challenge Tuesday. It said broadband access needs to be affordable even in the most impoverished nations.

The head of the U.N.'s International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Hamadoun Toure, says the targets are "ambitious but achievable" if governments work together with the private sector.

Comments

[Wayne Caswell]

11:13 AM on 10/26/2011

I think a key reason there’s been so little U.S. investment in broadband is because we continue to view Broadband as a Service, offered by competing private companies who measure success based on Profit (ARPU, ROI, Payback Period, etc.) and have successfully argued that municipalities should be barred from offering public networks that compete with theirs. If we instead viewed broadband as public infrastructure, like Airports and Highways, we'd measure success differently too, using metrics like Economic Development due to e-commerce and telework, Healthcare Improvements due to telemedicine, Better Prepared Workers who are better educated and better qualified due to distance learning, etc. There's a $5+ trillion per year U.S. opportunity available with this broader vision.

[Chris Burgess]

09:51 AM on 10/26/2011

Australia is putting in it own high speed broadband. Fibre optics at 100 mbps available to 93% of Australia. The rest will be serviced by satellite.

http://www.nbnco.com.au and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Broadband_Network

[Chris Burgess]

10:04 AM on 10/26/2011

The Republicans would call this socialism.

[Chris Burgess]

10:05 AM on 10/26/2011

Rupert Murdochs papers in Australia have tries to sabotage the NBN.

[frank day]

09:47 PM on 10/25/2011

High Speed Internet will become a basic human right.

[Chris Burgess]

09:55 AM on 10/26/2011

You're spot on.

[Ginzu Mawa]

05:50 PM on 10/25/2011

There's already a next level internet thats built for telescopes. Huge files sizes.

We also need to prepare for the biotech revolution - which is 35 years behind the digital growth curve and is expected to be bigger than the industrial revolution or digital revolution. Those Genome and (and connectome) files are big.

[rumple4skin]

05:14 PM on 10/25/2011

Don't mean to bother or bore ... one more from Forbe, 1/24/2011.

The comments are also very revealing and interesting.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kymmcnicholas/2011/01/24/the-fastest-internet-speeds-in-the-world/2/

[rumple4skin]

05:08 PM on 10/25/2011

More:

US Drops to 22nd in Broadband Speed Worldwide (April 2010)

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/1004/

South Korea led all countries surveyed with an average connection speed of 11.7 Mbps.The spread of the iPhone is dropping average connection speeds.

[frank day]

09:48 PM on 10/25/2011

South Korea is the size of Rhode Island.

[rumple4skin]

04:34 PM on 10/25/2011

US Broadband Speed 18th Worldwide (August 2009 )
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0908/

WE need help.

Faster speeds are unfunded entitlements ... wait ... jack up the prices, they'll pay ... let the free market determine the costs!

[edenooch]

04:17 PM on 10/25/2011

Their wireless infrastructure will be dirt cheap

[Chris Burgess]

09:57 AM on 10/26/2011

You'll need a tower on every corner. The more people log on the slower it gets. Fibre is the only way.

[Marisa Stein]

04:12 PM on 10/25/2011

great, more Nigerian Scammers

[Chris Burgess]

09:58 AM on 10/26/2011

and Alabama scammers and Texas scammers and Mississippi scammers and Virginia scammers on and on it goes.

[Marisa Stein]

11:16 AM on 10/26/2011

those are developing countries?

[Mister Grumpy]

03:21 PM on 10/25/2011

Sure...... let's hook up all these poor people up to the internet so they can find out how poor they really are...........

[wespenn56]

03:03 PM on 10/25/2011

Sad thing is the developing country's connections will likely be faster and cheaper than ours.

[Chris Burgess]

10:00 AM on 10/26/2011

Espescially Australia's. Our NBN fibre network we are building will give 100 mbps to 93% of Australians.

[Chris Burgess]

10:01 AM on 10/26/2011

The Republicans would call it socialist. :)