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11th Forum on Telecom/ICT Regulation and Partnership in Africa
FTRA 2010
The 11th Forum on
Telecommunication/ICT Regulation and Partnership in Africa (FTRA-2010) was held at the Kairaba Hotel, Banjul, The Gambia, from 12 to
14 July 2010 under the theme of Fibre optic broadband and sharing the
capacity and open access principles to achieve Connect Africa Goal 1.
Partnership and regulatory challenges. The forum was organized by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the kind invitation of the Government
of the Republic of The Gambia through the Public Utility Regulatory
Authority (PURA), in close collaboration with the African
Telecommunications Regulators’ Network and the African Regional Working
Party on private sector issues.
This forum was preceded
by the ITU Regional Development Forum held from 14 to 16 July 2010 at the same venue under the
theme of Modern Spectrum Management and Transition from Analogue to
Digital Broadcasting. Information concerning the ITU Regional
Development Forum is available at:
www.itu.int/ITU-D/tech/indexDevelopmentForum.html.
FTRA 2010 was attended by over 160 delegates representing 39 countries, and 17 organizations were also present at the event.
The theme for this forum emanated from proposals made by
participants of the 10th Forum on the Telecommunication/ICT Regulation
and Partnership in Africa, held in Lusaka, Zambia in May 2009. During
the deliberations held in this forum, a general observation was made
regarding the insufficient ICT infrastructure in Africa as recognized
during the Connect Africa Summit held in Rwanda in October 2007 and the
need to promote the sharing of infrastructure in order to achieve Goal
1: Interconnect all African capitals and major cities with ICT broadband
infrastructure and strengthen connectivity to the rest of the world by
2012.
The Forum provided the opportunity to
analyze in depth the policy, regulatory and technical issues that could
help the Africa region to secure the roll-out of networks and access of
affordable services in the continent.
Thirteen recommendations were approved by the Forum
and are published here in the Final Communiqué.
The mission achieved its objectives and the FTRA was considered by all
involved as a successful meeting. Cote d’Ivoire and Rwanda
offered to host FTRA 2011, to
be confirmed.
The forum was held in English and French with
simultaneous interpretation. Documents relating to the event and their
regular updates are available on the ITU website at:
www.itu.int/ITU-D/afr/events/FTRA/2010/documents.
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