BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin opened the ITU Policy and Economic Colloquium for the Americas region, on “COVID-19: Challenges and opportunities for ICT in the Americas".
Organized by BDT in close collaboration with the Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications (OSIPTEL) of Peru, the event focused on connecting the unconnected, the economic and financial issues in a converged broadband environment, and new challenges in the digital ecosystem. International experts were invited to illustrate the situation in their countries, in order to promote dialogue and exchange of experiences.
Ms Bogdan-Martin described how digital networks have been vital to our short-term ability to adapt and survive in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said that in the medium-term, digital connectivity will also be a key determinant of how quickly and easily we are able to reshape our world into some kind of 'new normal'.
ITU recently brought together a panel of digital economy experts, who noted that countries with world-class connectivity infrastructure could potentially mitigate up to half the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Ms Bogdan-Martin pointed out that currently, only a handful of economies could benefit from that advantage. Far too much of humanity is excluded from the benefits of connectivity, she said, observing that, in the Americas region alone, ITU figures indicate that 270 million individuals remain totally unconnected.
Ms Bogdan-Martin mentioned that in a promising sign, financial institutions and national governments are starting to recognize the vital importance of broadband to economic recovery plans, and are allocating funds to digital infrastructure investments. However there is a long way to go.
Reviewing the state of the industry under COVID, she praised the spirit of camaraderie within the global digital community, noting that the world's telecommunications networks have largely coped well under unprecedented pressure, despite huge demand spikes.
Through its REG4COVID platform, ITU has been able to showcase and share hundreds of effective decisions and actions by regulators and industry, so that the digital community can learn from each other's experiences. Ms Bogdan-Martin mentioned that in the Americas, governments and the private sector worked together to secure emergency spectrum assignments, introduce emergency tariffs, provide payment relief to consumers, increase data allowances, and set up new WiFi hotspots.
“We need this kind of leadership and collaboration to continue beyond our immediate COVID response, in order to address the more fundamental and longer-term challenge of finding a way to ensure everyone, everywhere, benefits from the power of digital connectivity," she said.
