Honourable Delegates, hosts, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is honour for me to be in beautiful Dubai. I congratulate the International Telecommunication Union and the Government of UAE for organizing this important conference.
Intel's vision, as the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, is "to create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on Earth." We advance this goal through our substantial efforts in education, environmental sustainability, and healthcare, but primarily through our technically innovative products based on Intel® architecture that power PCs, servers, tablets and phones and more.
In the policy arena, Intel works with governments, organizations, and industries around the world to foster widespread, affordable, high quality broadband. And as an active member of the Broadband Commission, we recommend that each country promote facilities-based competition, assign spectrum flexibly, support voluntary global standards and develop a National Broadband Plan with specific, time-bound goals. And where market forces are insufficient, we recommend the use of an efficiently funded, competitively-neutral universal service subsidy mechanism to promote broadband adoption. Because wireless technologies such as LTE can be used to provide wide area coverage (e.g. rural areas), it is important to ensure that operators have access to sufficient spectrum below 1 GHz. It is also important to continue to meet growing demand for mobile broadband (including both IMT and Wi-Fi) via WRC-15 Agenda Items 1.1.
We believe that investing in the education of children by introducing more technology in the classroom can produce great benefits and smooth a country's transition to the information society. Specifically, the connection of all schools and classrooms with broadband and the use of information communication technologies with state of the art digital learning programs will create the digital skills needed by the future workforce and accelerate broadband and ICT penetration as well as produce immediate consumer and societal benefits.
Intel strongly supports industry led, voluntary standards. The explosion of ICT innovation over the last couple of decades is a direct result of the transition from government mandated technologies to technology-neutral policies.
Likewise the current, multi-stakeholder approach to managing the internet must be maintained.
Today, broadband and communication technologies are an integral part of our everyday lives, spawning technical innovation and enabling us to better connect to the world around us. Establishing policies to encourage broadband and ICT growth, encouraging competition including at the facilities level, assigning abundant spectrum flexibly for wireless broadband, and the smart use of Universal Service Funds are essential for countries to grow and compete in the information society.
Peter Pitsch (Global Executive Director and Associate General Counsel)
Head of Intel Delegation
World Telecommunication Development Conference
Dubai, UAE
March 30-April 10, 2014
