In emerging markets mobile technologies offer the best hope for providing broadband in a cost-effective and extensive manner – and for reducing the digital divide between people with easy access to information and services and those without.
With broadband, the telecommunications industry has an opportunity to create a world in which all people can have affordable access to basic services that can improve livelihood, enable access to healthcare and education, provide information and entertainment, and more – a world in which everyone can take part in a borderless and global information society.
Broadband access helps promote equal opportunities for everyone. Once people have a broadband connection, their geographic location becomes less of a barrier to social and economic inclusion. Broadband makes it easier for people to live and work in rural areas – supporting local development, avoiding unnecessary migration and improving national socio-geographic structures.
Whether in emerging or developed markets, to deliver mobile broadband for all is through the globally-standardized Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technologies that enable roaming, interoperability, backward compatibility and economies of scale – just as has been seen with GSM for voice services.
The global 3GPP family of standards offers the best way for economies at all stages of development – particularly in rural areas – to gain cost-effective access to everything from basic voice and data communication to high-speed broadband internet access, available wherever people are.
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