ITU publishes new ICT Infrastructure Business Planning Toolkit

ICT infrastructure is the basis of today’s digital economy and offers enormous potential to advance progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and improve people’s lives in fundamental ways.

Deploying broadband internet in big towns and cities happens almost naturally. But deploying these networks to rural and remote areas is markedly more challenging.

Economic, geographic and/or demographic barriers mean that many people remain unconnected to the digital world.

Related: Access the ICT Infrastructure Business Planning Toolkit publication here

 

Regulators and policymakers have a big role to play in changing this.

When designing an optimal broadband network business – one that can respond and adapt to a wide range of infrastructure deployment projects – these public agents need to consider a great deal of information.

This includes: technology options; deployment, operation, migration and further development of national and cross-border infrastructure; and most importantly, the relative costs associated and the optimal strategies for financing the necessary investments.

 

 

To tackle these issues and support network expansion, ITU has published the ICT infrastructure business planning toolkit.

Inspired by practical implementation, this new toolkit offers regulators and policymakers a clear and practical methodology to deliver accurate economic evaluation of proposed broadband infrastructure installation and deployment plans.

Related: Why leaders need new tools to connect rural citizens

The toolkit intends to:

• serve as a practical manual for regulators and policymakers working towards extending broadband network deployment and access;
• address key elements for a successful business planning implementation for ICT infrastructure development;
• present and explain best practices on infrastructure installation and deployment plans as well as its economic feasibility assessment to support decision making;
• provide quantitative examples of most searched projects, such as the construction of optical fibre backbones, wireless broadband networks (including 4G), and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) access network projects.

The content is presented in the following sections:

 

 

The expert guidance offered here, combined with ITU/BDT technical support and follow-up, will facilitate the development of credible and coherent business planning adaptable to a wide range of broadband infrastructure deployment projects.

Access the publication: https://itu.int/go/businessplan_toolkit