BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin delivered opening remarks to the ITU Regional Forum for Europe: 5G Strategies, Policies and Implementation. The event was organized by ITU with the support of the Chancellery of The Prime Minister (KPRM) of the Republic of Poland, and was organized within the framework of the ITU European Regional Initiative on Broadband Infrastructure, broadcasting and spectrum management adopted by the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference 2017 (WTDC-17).
The event focused on challenges and opportunities related to 5G implementation, with particular reference to regional and national strategies and policies as well as private sector use cases and commercialization and EMF and other challenges.
Ms Bogdan-Martin noted that Europe's combination of strong connectivity, enabling regulatory environment and its vibrant ecosystem of digital technologies and services have proven to be fundamental in ensuring the Region's resilience during this COVID-19 pandemic. According to ITU's “Measuring Digital Development: Fact and Figures" annual report, the European region has the highest Internet usage rates, averaging 82.5 per cent of individuals actively connected, 92.3 per cent mobile network coverage by LTE, and 118.4 mobile subscriptions per every 100 inhabitants.
It is well-recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing digital divides and demonstrated the crucial role of digitalization in all sectors. Ms Bogdan-Martin underlined ITU's commitment to ensuring that digital technologies and connectivity are aimed at reducing these gaps, and that regulation is driven by the highest standards of fifth-generation regulation (G5 regulation), based on inclusive and collaborative practices.
The World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 opened up the opportunity to introduce innovative and advanced services in the field of telecommunications, by identifying spectrum for 5G. ''By paving the way for new and more innovative ways to connect, these international agreements can positively impact the lives of billions of people around the world, and create a digital landscape for sustainable growth and development,'' explained Ms Bogdan-Martin.
5G has the potential to bring concrete benefits to all sectors of industry and society. She emphasized that while Europe advances rapidly on 5G implementation, we must ensure that these dynamics are shared by all countries, and leave no space for creating new divides. ''Just as the deployment of 4G was carried out across Europe with a strong focus on leaving no one behind, it is now our duty to ensure that an enabling regulatory environment sustains the deployment of 5G, in a way that connectivity is leveraged by all and for all,'' she said.
