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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Dear Members,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>We are happy to announce the publication of a joint ISOC-OECD-UNESCO
report on “<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>The Relationship between
local content, Internet development and access prices</span></b>”. The
report was presented today at the WSIS Forum in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Geneva</st1:City></st1:place> by Janis Karklins, UNESCO’s
Assistant Director-General, Markus Kummer, the Internet Society’s
Vice-President for Public Policy, and Taylor Reynolds, Senior Economist at the
OECD. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:115%'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>This important
study finds that the three elements are inter-related and likely feed into each
other in a virtuous circle: (i) better connectivity is significantly related to
higher levels of local digital content creation. In essence, countries with
more Internet infrastructure (at all income levels) are also the countries
producing more local digital content as measured by Wikipedia entries and by
web pages under a given country-code top-level domain; (ii) countries with more
international connectivity have lower domestic broadband prices and countries
with better domestic infrastructure have lower international bandwidth prices.
The inter-linkages between the different elements lead to three key lines of
policy considerations evolving out this research: (i) Fostering content
development, (ii) Expanding connectivity, and (iii) Promoting Internet access
competition. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:115%'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The Internet Society will issue a press release this week to spread the
news more broadly, but we wanted to share this information with our community
as soon as possible. The full report is available here: <a
href="http://www.internetsociety.org/localcontent">http://www.internetsociety.org/localcontent</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:115%'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:115%'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>Best
regards,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:115%'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:115%'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>Constance
Bommelaer<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:115%'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>Director,
Public Policy<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:115%'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>The
Internet Society<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:115%'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><a
href="http://www.isoc.org/">www.isoc.org</a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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