Special session on Bridging the Digital Divide

Opening the Special Session on “Bridging the Digital Divide”, Oktay Vural, Turkey’s Minister of Transport and Communications noted that public policy had begun to pay attention to providing Internet access and the corresponding skills on a broad base worldwide.

He expressed the sentiment that the telecommunication community should address the issues of the financial divide, the knowledge divide as well as the confidence divide. At the international level, four elements in dealing with the digital divide should be taken into account: education, electricity, governance and culture.

In the remarks that followed, ITU was recognized as the leader in increasing the efficient use of limited resources such as the radio-frequency spectrum and in keeping pace with the tremendous transformation in technologies. But while ITU has done much to bridge the digital divide, it should become more involved and serve as a focal point for information about digital divide initiatives.

The digital divide should not be accepted as an irreversible marginalization of the knowledge “have-nots”. Rather, it should be seen as a cloud with a silver lining, and must be dealt with from the perspective of globalization with a view to promoting the concerted development of the telecommunication industry worldwide. With will, more importantly, political will, intractable obstacles could be overcome.

Multilateral institutions have a role to play in creating a balance in access to Internet at a reasonable price. There were calls for a concerted information strategy, based on applications such as e-health and e-education.

Rural areas suffered from lack of reliable, modern equipment and the problem of isolation. ITU was asked to continue its work in technical assistance to ensure sustainable development. Furthermore, ITU should help to strengthen national regulatory bodies, but at the same time, remove the “regulatory underbrush” that hampers investment inflows.

Many speakers also raised concerns and hopes about the development of Internet content. Multiple cultures and languages require that every country take effective measures to gradually redress the imbalance in the Internet content and making the Internet a more accommodating space culturally.

International organizations have a role to play in bringing about “digital justice” or “digital equity” through strengthening regional initiatives, enhancing cooperation between developing countries and through “government push”. International cooperation also needs to be strengthened to combat cybercrime in all forms, in a bid to protect and preserve the security of the network and information.

Among the many concrete ideas to combat the digital divide were proposals to include digital broadcasting in the agenda of the Istanbul Action Plan, deploy digital radios with computers and printers in projects intended to bridge the digital divide; and promote the creation of local content to drive development agendas. On a national level, community awareness, educational empowerment, development of professional skills were other means of transforming the “2Ds” (digital divide) into “3As” (awareness, accessibility and affordability).

Russia’s Minister for Communications and Informatization, Leonid Reiman; Cameroon’s Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Maximin Paul Nkoue Nkongo; United States FCC Commissioner, Kevin Martin; Syria’s Minister Basheer Mohammed al-Munajed; Minister of Tunisia, Ahmed Friaa; Vice-Minister of China, Jiang Chun Zhang; France’s Minister, Christian Pierret; and a spokesperson for Egypt’s Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology, Ahmed Nazif, led the roster of ministerial-level speakers at the special session. France’s Regulator Jean-Michel Hubert, Shyamal Ghosh from the Indian Department of Communications, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s Shehzada Alam Malik and Malaysia’s Suriah Abdul Rahman also added remarks.

Jan Mutai, Secretary-General of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU); José Pileggi-Veliz, Chairman of Com-Citel (a committee of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission — CITEL); Maya Shankar Verma, Chairman of the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India; Noah Samara, CEO of WorldSpace; Ahmed Toumi, Director General and Chief Executive Officer of International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO); and Arthur Reilly, Senior Director of Cisco made presentations.

The strategic approaches recommended by both ITU Member States and Sector Members at the special session were later presented to a full Plenary session of the Conference and some of them are reflected in the Istanbul Action Plan, and the Istanbul Declaration.