Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union, has called on global leaders to ensure more than half of the world’s population has access to broadband within five years.
Speaking at the Broadband Commission for…
Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union, has called on global leaders to ensure more than half of the world’s population has access to broadband within five years.
Speaking at the Broadband Commission for Digital Development conference at UN headquarters in New York yesterday, Touré argued that access to high-speed networks is a basic civil right.
“Broadband is the next tipping point, the next truly transformational technology,” said Touré.
“It can generate jobs, drive growth and productivity, and underpin long-term economic competitiveness.”
He added that broadband is “the most powerful tool we have at our disposal” to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals for 2015, which include eradicating extreme poverty and reducing child mortality.
His comments come as the Commission publishes a report urging governments across the world to replicate the “mobile miracle” of the last decade in a “broadband boom”.
