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ITU says USD 55 billion committed to connect Africa

  • November 1st, 2007
  • 2:57 pm

A summit on improving Africa’s information technology infrastructure wrapped up in Rwanda with investment commitments amounting to over USD 55 billion. ITU head Hamadoun Toure said in a statement that African leaders had committed themselves to creating the right regulatory environment, and private sector leaders had pledged to invest in the continent’s ICT sector. The summit decided to bring forward ICT connectivity goals to 2012 to enable the achievement of the broader Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Commitments were made to interconnect all African capitals and major cities with ICT broadband infrastructure and strengthen connectivity to the rest of the world by 2012. By 2015, broadband and ICT services will be extended to all African villages. The summit also set out to meet the World Summit on the Information Society goals for capacity building, establishing an enabling environment for investment, and e-government services. Toure said telecom companies were making profits, farmers were getting the information they need, and teachers were receiving educational aid. “Mobile phones even have an impact on democracy. During elections, people have used mobile phones to get election results fast and in a transparent manner.”

   

ITU adopts WiMAX as 3G standard

  • October 22nd, 2007
  • 12:26 pm

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has approved WiMAX as a 3G standard. The ITU Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-07) formally recognised technology derived from IEEE 802.16 by incorporating it as the sixth terrestrial IMT-2000 radio interface. This is the first addition to IMT-2000 since the original five were adopted years ago as part of the 3G radio standards. IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications) is a global standard defined by ITU in a set of interdependent ITU Recommendations, which include the specifications for the radio interfaces of advanced wireless communications systems such as 3G mobile. An initial application for the IMT-2000 Advanced standard was made at the ITU-R WP8F meeting in Kyoto, Japan, in January this year.

   

ITU issues regulation guidelines on IP networks

  • September 5th, 2007
  • 1:20 pm

The International Telecommunications Union has issued guidelines for market regulators and governments dealing with issues surrounding the development of next-generation, IP-based networks. NGN networks is the subject of the ITU’s annual report on trends in the ICT sector, this year entitled Trends in Telecommunication Reform: the Road to NGN. The report contains ten chapters on various issues facing policymakers, including an overview of the current ICT market and regulatory environment and an analysis of various technologies associated with IP networks. The ITU advises government to support and encourage the development of IP networks, particularly in developing countries where new (wireless) IP-based technologies can help countries quickly achieve their development goals. The report was released at an ITU Council meeting, which also outlined objectives for the upcoming Connect Africa summit planned for October in Kigali.