Archived Newsroom • Press Release |
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ITU Telecom World 2011 launches debate to global audience
Heads of State, ICT ministers, industry leaders
join tens of thousands of participants around the world to create a ‘Manifesto
for Change’
Geneva, 25 October 2011 – The 40th anniversary edition of
ITU Telecom World opened its doors today to over 250 top leaders from
government, the private sector and the global technology community.
The event, which is being held in Geneva from 24-27 October, is bringing the
brightest minds and most influential leaders together to debate the key issues
that will shape the future of an industry that now pervades virtually every
field of human endeavour.
A vibrant opening ceremony sponsored by China Mobile, the world’s largest
mobile operator with over 600 million subscribers, featured President Ali Bongo
of Gabon; Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji; Igor
Shchegolev, Minister of Communications and Mass Media, Russian Federation; Doris
Leuthard, Head of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and
Communications, Switzerland; Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohamed Saud Al-Thani,
Chairman, Qatar Telecom; Jianzhou Wang, Chairman, China Mobile; and Dr Hamadoun
Touré, Secretary-General, ITU.
Dr Touré noted how, for the first time in ITU Telecom’s 40-year history, tens
of thousands of people from around the world were joining the event using the
full range of connected technologies. The event, he said, will be a genuine
“conversation reflecting the concerns, dreams and visions, not just of people
physically present at the event” but of those all around the world following the
event remotely from their homes, offices,
schools, and through a network of
100,000 telecentres around the world.
The official ceremony was followed by a more informal event celebration in
the OpenSpace arena, where participants heard from additional dignitaries
including Mark Muller, Conseiller d’Etat, Geneva; Dr Babatunde Osotimehin,
Executive Director, UN Population Fund (UNFPA); and Mohamed Khalfan Al Qamzi,
Chairman of the Board of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of
the United Arab Emirates.
Dr Reza Jafari, Chairman of the ITU Telecom Board, took the occasion to
announce Dubai as the winner of the global bid to host ITU Telecom World 2012.
TRA Chairman Al Qamzi welcomed the announcement, noting that UAE is now home to
operators serving over 100 million customers across Asia, the Middle East and
Africa. “The global position of UAE as a major gateway for three continents with
trade and transit routes reaching west, east, north and south, has ICT as it
heart,” he said. “Bringing ICT industry leaders to the region will help foster
the development of this sector. I look forward to welcoming you to UAE and to
showing you the extent to which ICT is contributing to our development.”
Latest ICT statistics
To set the tone and fuel the debate, ITU took the occasion to unveil a new
mini-report, The World in 2011, which reveals
impressive growth in areas such as global Internet use, particularly in
developing countries. The publication confirms that ICT growth continues apace,
with close to six billion mobile cellular subscriptions forecast by the end of
2011, and around 2.3 billion people using the Internet.
Growth is fastest in the developing world, and amongst the young, with almost
half the world’s online population now under 25 years old. That number should
continue to increase steadily as Internet penetration continues to grow in
schools.
The developing world’s share of the world’s total Internet users has grown
from 44% five years ago, to 62% today. Global Internet penetration has grown by
over 50% in three years – from 13% in 2008 to 20% in 2011.
The new ITU figures provide a quick snapshot of broadband deployment
worldwide, revealing gaping disparities in high-speed access. While
international Internet bandwidth has grown from 11,000 Gbps in 2006 to close to
80,000 Gbps in 2011, Europeans enjoy on average almost 90’000 bps of bandwidth
per user compared to Internet users in Africa, who are limited to 2,000 bps per
user.
The report shows that the world’s top broadband economies are all located in
Europe, Asia and the Pacific. In the Republic of Korea, mobile broadband
penetration now exceeds 90%, with nearly all fixed broadband connections
providing speeds equal to or above 10 Mbps. In comparison, broadband users in
countries such as Ghana, Mongolia, Oman and Venezuela are limited to broadband
speeds below 2 Mbps.
Dreams and visions of how to best use technology to improve lives will be a
major theme throughout the event, culminating in a ‘Manifesto for Change’
detailing recommendations for action to help more of the world’s population get
connected. The Manifesto, produced in collaboration with ITU Telecom’s Insight
Partner Ernst & Young, will be created from all the discussions taking place
around the event, including online contributions, echoing questions raised and
views voiced by participants in Geneva and across the world.
To download a copy of The World in 2011,
www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/facts/2011/index.html
For more information on ITU Telecom World 2011, visit
http://world2011.itu.int.
Live and archived webcasts of selected ITU Telecom World 2011 sessions are
available at: http://world2011.itu.int.
Follow and participate in the global debates at ITU Telecom World 2011
through Facebook at www.itu.int/facebook
and through the @ITU_News twitter account #ITUworld11, #world11kids,
#world11ideas, #ictmanifesto.
For more information, please contact:
Sally Moore
Axicom UK
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Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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