This week, during the Broadband Leadership Summit and ITU Telecom World 2011, it was great to see how far the Broadband Commission for Digital Development has come since its creation in 2010. The Commission is now well-recognized as an important advocate of broadband deployment as a key enabler to development.
As someone who started in the fixed networking arena, it’s staggering to think of what’s encompassed by the words ‘broadband networks’ today compared to the quite finite description that would have fit in the past.
I already firmly believe in the benefits being connected can have for people, business and society. And it seems that more and more people are seeing the benefits of connectivity through broadband too.
On Tuesday, Patti Smith and The Kronos Quartet received the Polar Prize. I was there. She was commended for transforming the way “an entire generation looks, thinks and dreams.” It got me thinking about how the music industry has changed since her time, and how people really do have the power.
Nigeria has more than 150 million people, and an estimated 90 million mobile phone subscribers. But broadband penetration is said at best to be less than 3 percent. A report this week got me thinking about what broadband could mean for this African giant.
Connections are bringing us closer, closer to each other and closer to a truly Networked Society.
ICT is making life better for you, me and billions of other people around the world. Just increasing broadband penetration alone has been shown to increase GDP, boost social cohesion and improve efficiency in service delivery.
But as we combine the power of ICT with the dramatic growth of cities globally, we are seeing the emergence [...]
