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ITU Aims At 20Mbps Broadband For All By 2020
Mark.JUK writes "Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has proposed to 'dream big' by setting a new broadband access target for the world. In short, Touré would like to see the United Nations (UN) update its global digital development targets to include a commitment that would require countries around the world to ensure that everybody can access broadband internet speeds of 20Mbps from just $20 by 2020. Easier said than done, especially in poorer countries."
20 Mbps for $20? Easier said than done in the United States of Monopolies.
And I want to stop world hunger and end all wars. We can even feed everyone on this planet and their goal is 20Mbps? I love the Internet and all, but considering the fact that many people still die of hunger and disease, isn't this goal a little lofty?
We have to pay $50 for 8mb broadband(not fiber) internet.. sad
They seek to usurp the rightful power of the United States Government, and become one World Order. Google UN Agenda 21 if you doubt their insidious plans. We need to withdraw from the UN and kick them off of our soil.
The ITU can aim anywhere it wants while it continues its downward spiral twoard irrelevance.
Yes, networks span over fiber optic. But to power the junction points that light up the fiber and distribute over coax and twisted pair is a big problem in many 3rd world nations. Reason being copper theft. It's big deal. It's a big deal here in the US too. But don't expect to sink a large investment into a nation if said investment can't be reasonably protected. South Africa comes to mind.
Life is not for the lazy.
Brazil is out of this.
Please, go sleep.
20 mega-ponies-per-second.
About as realistic.
Seriously, this is a laudable "target" as long as everyone agrees that we are playing "horseshoe and hand grenades" rules, where close counts. If anyone thinks "we must do this, period, and if even one person on the planet can't get 20 Mbps for $20 by the end of 2020 then we've failed" and expects to "succeed," they are delusional.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
talk is cheap, I didn't realize wishful thinking is all you need for one of the top jobs
AFAIK, the norm for outdoor power is aluminum wrapped over a steel core. It's not worth anywhere near as much as copper.
Like telephone service spreading to the developing world, this won't happen with wires.
I've got a 5Mbps wireless broadband connection right now, and that's WiMAX, old tech. Verizon's LTE does close to 10 Mbps..
My connection costs me $50/month; if we imagine opening things up to real competition, $20/mo doesn't seem unreasonable.
If we had the political will to make 20Mbps broadband as accessible as voice communication is today, yes, we could do it in under a decade.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Nice to know price is against the united nations.
Probably a crime against humanity.
We get 360 Kbps on a good day with Frontier DSL, the only choice aside from satellite. Frontier bought Verizon's rural operations a few years ago and they refuse to upgrade. You can pay more (~$60-70/mo.) for a "high-speed" tier, but people report that your speed actually drops. Frontier is scum, the poster child for crap internet service.
Sent from the iPad I found in your car.
> Reason being copper theft. It's big deal.
Well. Here in India, Internet and cable TV use wires hanging between buildings, and have done so for decades. Theft is not really a problem.
The cheapest wireless internet we have is 256 kbps at $5 a month. That's quite adequate for everything but video. $10 for 1 mbps wired.
The important thing is for everyone to with the most basic literacy to be able to afford unmetered Internet *access*. Higher bandwidth is much less important. Upper tiers just get used for entertainment and are not critical.
I feel that making basic Internet access at limited bandwidth (256 kbps is fine, 1mbps is better if we are to target online education), available as free as radio waves or water, is a better goal than 20 for 20 by 20.
Mobile phones are already very cheap here. Incoming calls are free. Outgoing call balance can be recharged with cards as low as 50 cents. So a poor family living in a hut with a leaky roof can still afford phones for each of its members for essential use. Internet should be as affordable as that and it will surely get there here without any ITU directives.
ensure that everybody can access broadband internet speeds of 20Mbps from just $20 by 2020.
I'm surprised they didn't make it "up to 20Mbps from just $20," in which case, mission accomplished!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I'd settle for paying for 3mb and actually getting 3mb, instead of something that is pretty much useless for youtube even at 360p for pretty much of the day, and usually takes up to 50 retries to attach a single meg file. And it's not my mail client (gmail) because at this times, FTP upload performs just as nicely.
Don't forget the pony!
Please define everybody.
Does this include folks in third-world countries? Does this include all regions of India, Africa, and China (as a few examples)? There are may regions without access to, for example, safe, clean, potable water - is high-speed access to Amazon really a priority in those locations?
Ken
I somehow don't think they really care that we should have better internet connection. But how do you want to sell movies (sorry, rent them) via internet if you can't stream them in good quality? How do you want to keep tabs on everyone if their connection is clogged and they might be interested in reducing the traffic they don't benefit from?
I'm not really sure I'm looking forward to these great times.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
how about "ending world hunger by 2020"?
15 mbps for DSL lines, 30 mbps for cable TV lines, and 60 mbps for optical fiber lines. And that's the minimum. For cellular wireless, it should be 15 mbps for HSDPA+ 3G and 40 mbps for 3GPP LTE minimum.
That's about what I pay for 6mbps, doesn't sound farfetched to have a little more than three times that speed for the same price in 7 years, seven years ago I had 2 Mbps for a similar price.
In Russia, I already have it for $10.
Surely there are better things to do with our time and money than to pursue goals like this.
20MBPS for $20.00, easier said than done in Canada as well, with the massive gouging that goes on from Bell and Rogers.
To get that speed here would currently cost approx $50.00 per month.
And forget even basic DSL for rural Customers, still Millions of folks doomed to 56k dial up for the foreseeable future..
I'll give you 20MB/s for 20$ right now.
(with a 10MB cap and 5$ per MB overage)
That is pretty much the model these days anyway.
20 Mbps for everyone by 2020? Ain't never gonna happen. And for what reason should this be implemented anyway. I had a conversation with my teenage step-son last week who was really excited by the possibility of Gbps fiber to the home as floated by Google. And initially I was quite interested in the prospect - but then I got to thinking - why would anyone need such a high speed on the consumer end? We have ATT uverse (only the phone and internet) and we can stream HD content - and that is a connection that practically caps out at 12 Mbps. We originally had cable over uverse so I know they have at least ~60 Mbps capacity in that line would we really need more than that. Again what application would actually use the full 1Gbps capacity?
Wouldn't it be better to improve the content of the internet so that it becomes a real tool of knowledge for those that already have it instead of distributing more pornography for what it seems to be a reduced cost for people in developed countries but is higher that the average monthly income in several poor countries? I can't see people spending their whole monthly incomes to connect to the internet, specially those that cannot afford a computer. Perhaps we should go one step at a time and help those less fortunate increase their incomes so they can feed themselves and educate their children. Then, perhaps they will make the decision themselves when they have the ability to do so.
$20 in today's value, or in 7 years of inflation?
I can already get 20M for $20. It just comes with a 5GB data cap...well I used to at my old address, now I'm further from the exchange and only get about 12Mbps. In two years I'll have access to 100Mbps, like most of the rest of my back-water country.
Although it was good to see at least mild-mention of the Poor,
it'd be better to have service cost expressed -equitable- units,
that recognized the vast differences in amount of human-time
it takes - across the world - to earn $20.