Status:
IGF Theme(s) for workshop: Access and Diversity
Main theme question address by workshop: Questions 5 and 9
Concise description of the proposed workshop:
Mobile broadband is a platform that enables socio-economic developments in the areas of healthcare, education, enterprise and entrepreneurship, raising the standard of living and increasing economic productivity in a country or region. The World Bank conducted a study showing that, in many developing nations, for every 10% increase in mobile penetration there would be a 1.4% increase in GDP. Countries around the world are on the path to an explosion in mobile broadband usage that will put a large burden on the capacity of wireless networks, threatening to hamper the growth of this valuable communications platform. The number of devices support advanced mobile technology is projected to be in the billions within the next 10-15-years, offering great economies of scale and benefit. However, in order to achieve this addressing advanced mobile technology is needed, including use of LTE. To help handle this rapid increase in data traffic, many countries are adopting advanced mobile technologies to build next-generation mobile broadband networks. Global spectrum harmonization and rural coverage is important. Ensuring that spectrum allocations are, to the greatest extent possible, in accord with international allocations promotes innovation and investment by creating critical economies of scale. Lower-bandwidth frequencies, such as 700 MHz, have the ability to provide services more efficiently and have a significant coverage range across a broadly defined geographic area, especially in hard-to-reach communities.
This workshop will discuss, with the participation of a stakeholders from all regions, how to address projected traffic growth, as technology improvements alone will not be able to keep up with the mounting network capacity demand. And particularly for rural areas, what can help bring broadband services to the underserved and unserved remote areas of the world.
Background Paper:
Name of the organiser(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:
Organizers to be added, in addition to Verizon
Have you, or any of your co-organisers, organised an IGF workshop before?: Yes
Please provide link(s) to workshop(s) or report(s):
IGF Nairobi, Workshop 188: Transforming Higher Education Through Broadband – Maximizing Opportunities -- http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2011View&wspid=188
Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:
4G Americas/GSMA (TBC)
Government of Kenya (Confirmed)
Representation from participants of the WRC-12 (TBC)
Cross-sector Business representation (TBC)
Civil Society representation from regional or international organization (TBC)
Academia representative (TBC)
Name of Remote Moderator(s):