International Telecom Union (ITU) should help each nation to develop
country-specific plan for broadband networks in order to achieve Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) of United Nations.
These plans need to be put up in public domain so that international
investors can evaluate them for participation in execution of these projects in
Public-Private Participation (PPP) mode, said Kapil Sibal, the Minister of
Communication & IT, while speaking in Opening Plenary Session of Broadband
Leadership Summit-ITU Telecom World 2011 at Geneva.
Sibal also pointed out that ITU must coordinate with leading Financial
Institutions, including World Bank, IMF, ADB etc to help developing nations /
LDCs as development of nation-wide broadband networks requires significant
financial investments for long gestation period.
ITU needs to coordinate among member countries for development of
affordable ecosystem of access network, applications and end user terminals to
help greater penetration of broadband services.
Sibal underlined that high cost of Consumer Access Devices has been great
impediment in usage of broadband networks. ITU should therefore focus on
R&D in producing cost effective customer end devices.
Citing the example of recently launched tablet Akash by Ministry of
Human Resource Development in India which cost only $35, he said that it is an
Android-based tablet computer designed and developed as a platform for
audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web
content.
It has been drawing great attention of International Community ever
since its launch. During event, several Heads of States underscored the need
for such device to help bridge digital-divide in their countries.
Sibal also called for collaboration from other countries in order to
bring its price from $35 to $10 to enhance its affordability.
Sibal pointed out that India with a population of 1.2 billion people provides
enormity of challenges and opportunities alike in rolling out the broadband
services. If that is the case, it is not natural that the necessary equipment
and infrastructure come from outside i.e. from west at the cost of domestic
manufacturing. The sustainable development will come only from successful
deployment of ITC ecosystem that takes care of manufacturing of infrastructure,
content and end user device development -locally’.
Broadband services should enable spread of education and health services to the
people to build capacity and enabling environment. Development of content and
applications specific to countries, regions takes a central role in generating
the demand and adapting broadband by masses.
Development of nationwide broadband networks require assisting the countries to
develop country specific strategic plans and innovation in generating necessary
investments, which plays a key role in rolling out the broadband networks.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
