ITU Conference Sets 2020 Broadband Connect Agenda

Countries participating in the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-14) in Busan, South Korea, 171 of them including the U.S., have unanimously committed to a Connect 2020 Agenda, a strategic plan for an "interconnected world," setting targets to be achieved by 2020.

It is described as an effort to create an "information society, empowered by the interconnected world, where telecommunication/ICT enables and accelerates socially, economically and environmentally sustainable growth and development for everyone” based on what it calls the four pillars: growth, inclusiveness, sustainability, and innovation and partnerships and is meant to encompass government, the private sector, academia and civil society groups.

Those include that, worldwide, 55% of households should have access to the Internet, 60% should be using the Internet, and 40% of broadband should be "more affordable."

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.