ITU and the European Commission (EC) in partnership with the Office of Electronic Communications of Poland (UKE) held a conference 11-12 April 2016 in Warsaw, focused on "Broadband Services and Infrastructure Mapping".
The conference was organized within the framework of the Regional Initiative for Europe on Development of Broadband Access and Adoption of Broadband approved by the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2014 (WTDC-14).
It provided participants with an opportunity for high-level dialogue between the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of ITU, the European Commission, ITU Member States and Sector Members with particular emphasis on national, regional and international broadband services and infrastructure mapping initiatives.
"There is no doubt that broadband has become a critical infrastructure and essential backbone of each economic sector, helping to cut costs and improve on service delivery for millions of individuals, particularly those living in hard to reach areas," said Mr Brahima Sanou, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT). "It is our responsibility to ensure that this infrastructure is robust, accessible and affordable to everyone."
Mr Sanou noted that the mapping of broadband infrastructure is one of the priorities of BDT and that an ITU Interactive Transmission Map has been launched to take stock of national backbone connectivity for optical fibres, microwaves, satellite earth stations, as well as other key metrics of the ICT sector.
"Broadband Services are becoming an increasingly important feature of the telecommunications market," said Ms Magdalena Gaj, President of the Office of Electronic Communications of Poland. "Infrastructure Mapping is one of the tools that enables us to target investments to foster the development of information society. That is why we – at the Office of Electronic Communications – have always given it a high priority in our work. We have been engaged in various initiatives connected with Broadband Mapping. Now we are happy to host a conference on this issue and to hear about others' experience in this area."
"The measurement and monitoring of the quality of broadband services is of critical importance for the realization of the Digital Single Market in Europe," said Mr Guido Acchioni, Policy Officer, European Commission Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CONNECT). "The European Platform for Monitoring Quality of Service will support the programming of EU funds in broadband, assist the development and monitoring of EU policy objectives and regulation, and support the delivery of high quality connectivity to all European citizens."
More than 120 ICT experts from administrations, regulatory authorities, private-sector entities and institutes from some 35 countries shared their experiences and exchanged best practices, presenting over 25 national broadband infrastructure and services mapping exercises at the conference. In addition, several ways to improve broadband quality of service were demonstrated.
The two-day conference also established a network of professionals dealing with broadband mapping at both national and regional levels.
Participants at the conference agreed on the need to continue providing updated information on their national broadband networks in order to enrich the ITU Interactive Transmission Map. Currently, the map provides information from 156 countries. It includes data from 332 network operators and features more than 8.6 million kilometres of transmission networks.
