March 5th, 2015

MWC 2015 – Secretary-General Tim Unwin calls for major shift to resolve last mile exclusion

“We need to change our language in discussing ways through which the poorest and most marginalised can access the Internet: it should be the ‘first mile’ and not the ‘last mile’; partnerships should be multistakeholder and not just public-private.” said Professor Unwin at Mobile World Congress 2015.

BARCELONA, 05 MARCH 2015 – Professor Tim Unwin, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation said during a live TV debate yesterday at Mobile World Congress 2015 that “governments, operators and regulators need to work collaboratively and consider adopting innovative and alternative technologies, including satellite, wireless and fibre to ensure that the most marginalised in both urban and rural communities have access to broadband services.”

The theme of the live panel discussion was “The Last Mile,” and other panellists joining Professor Unwin included Guy Zibi, Head of Consulting at Pyramid Research and Shayan Sanyal, Chief Marketing Officer, bluwan.

The “last mile problem” has been and continues to be one of the biggest issues faced by Internet service providers in effectively delivering Internet services to remote rural communities where the cost of providing basic voice or data services to individual subscribers is seen by most operators as prohibitive.