Broadband is a basic human right

Tweet

Hate to say "I told you so" but I've been saying this for years. (And many of you thought I was mad/wrong/deluded back then). Access to broadband is a human right. And now, ITU has called for country's leaders to get on with it and make high speed broadband a civil right. (Our proposed USO is looking even less appropriate now).


This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com

Tweet

In the press release from the International Telecommunications Union is this quote:

“In the 21st century, affordable, ubiquitous broadband networks will be as critical to social and economic prosperity as networks like transport, water and power.

The Access to Broadband Campaign, of which I was co-founder, had the following tagline, which we wrote back in 2001:

The Access to Broadband Campaign exists to promote the universal availability of true broadband Internet access.

A is for Access

B is for Bridging the broadband digital divide

C is for Community empowerment

We also wrote:

The Access to Broadband Campaign represents the interests of UK consumers in advocating the faster deployment of affordable broadband access throughout the entirety of the UK covering both urban and rural areas.

Whilst those of us initially involved in ABC have taken different paths now, mainly because we were too far ahead of the game, what we felt back then is ever more relevant today.

As I said to someone at the conference, I feel as though we have all been pushing an enormous rock up a mountain for this last 15 years, and it is about to go over the summit and gain unstoppable momentum which will bring ubiquitous FTTH and FiWi to everyone. Today, I feel that is even more likely, and that Philip Virgo may well be right in saying that Rory's conference is the culmination of all these years of work and be that 'pivotal' point. Three cheers.