‘WIRELESS FIDELITY’ TECHNOLOGY, INTERNET ACCESS FOR DEVELOPING WORLD TO BE DISCUSSED AT HEADQUARTERS CONFERENCE 26 JUNE

‘WIRELESS FIDELITY’ TECHNOLOGY, INTERNET ACCESS FOR DEVELOPING WORLD TO BE DISCUSSED AT HEADQUARTERS CONFERENCE 26 JUNE

NEW YORK, 14 April (ICT Task Force) -- The Wireless Internet Institute (W2i), under the auspices of the United Nations Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Task Force, will host a conference on 26 June at United Nations Headquarters on “The WiFi Opportunity for Developing Nations”.

Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) allows Internet connection without wires, through a technology similar to that of cellular phones.  It enables computers to send and receive data anywhere within the range of a base station, and it is much faster than cable modem connections.

Pilot projects around the world are fast proving that WiFi technologies can bring broadband access to underserved populations at a fraction of the cost of alternative wired or wireless technologies.  But even as technological hurdles are rapidly falling, rigid spectrum policies, protective regulatory environments and lack of sustainable business models remain big obstacles to faster and broader deployment.

The conference, featuring plenary sessions and brainstorming workshops, will seek to establish strategies to overcome those obstacles and develop environments favourable to the broad deployment of WiFi infrastructures.  It will bring together WiFi industry leaders, government representatives and international development experts.

“This event is a wonderful illustration of how private organizations like W2i can, within the framework of the ICT Task Force, foster public-private partnerships”, said ICT Task Force Chairman JoséMaria Figueres-Olsen.  “I look forward to the impact this initiative will undoubtedly have in raising private and public stakeholders’ awareness of the potential WiFi presents as an economic development tool for underserved populations in developing nations”.

“WiFi technology, combined with the recent de-licensing of radio spectrum for spread-spectrum packet-based communications in India, provides attractive economies to supply wideband connectivity to sparsely populated communities where existing wireless cellular solutions are not commercially viable”, said Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Alex Pentland, founder of Media Lab Asia.  “This conference will be a great platform to understand the regulatory experiments we have undertaken in India and apply and propagate them in other underserved geographies”.

“W2i has received requests from business organizations and governmental regulatory agencies in several countries to facilitate a consensus building process among local stakeholders in WiFi initiatives”, said Daniel Aghion, Executive Director of W2i.  “The conference will be an excellent opportunity for WiFi industry leaders, government representatives and international development experts to lay the foundation for an accelerated deployment of low-cost broadband communications infrastructures.”

Participants will benefit from the attendance of stakeholders from many different horizons:  developing nations policymakers, regulators and entrepreneurs, international development and agency executives, academics and consultants, technology and service providers, as well as financial institutions, investment bankers and investors.

Launched in 2001, the United Nations ICT Task Force lends a truly global dimension to the multitude of efforts to bridge the global digital divide, foster digital opportunity and thus firmly put ICT at the service of development for all.

W2i, a division of World Times, Inc. (www.worldtimes.com), is an international independent think tank bringing wireless Internet stakeholders together to foster universal connectivity in support of economic, social and educational development around the world.

For further information, visit the Web site of the ICT Task Force at www.unicttaskforce.org, or of the Wireless Internet Institute at www.w2i.org; or contact Samuel Danofsky of the ICT Task Force, tel:  (917) 367 2424, e-mail:  danofsky@un.org, or Daniel Aghion of the Wireless Internet Institute, tel: 

(617) 439 5400, e-mail:  daghion @w2i.org.

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