[Chapter-delegates] Global Connect initiative

[Khaled Koubaa]

Hi Dave,
Thank you for bringing some thoughts on my questions.
I understand your concern, but projections are always projections. I have
seen several numbers, but no one will be 100% the same exact number of
internet users. Google for example communicate usually on bringing the 5
billions by 2020, is this what we will have by 2020 ? ( I am not sur to be
honest ).
You are saying that is "Pure PR" initiative. Is PR a bad thing ? PR
initiatives aiming bringing people together and get them more committed to
an objective like connecting people, is something that I will my self
always support.
It is also a government led and lot of governments from around the globe
are partners, which for me important as without government in most of the
emerging market we absolutely can do nothing.
Let them commit to bring 1.5 Billion, and we will the rest.

Khaled Koubaa
Twitter : @koubaak <https://twitter.com/koubaak>
LinkedIn : http://lnked.in/kkoubaa


2016-04-14 23:13 GMT+02:00 Dave Burstein <daveb at dslprime.com>:

> Khaled
>
> Due respect to your question, but a look inside the U.S. State Department
> effort suggests it's a sham. I'm trying to post less but I've researched
> this one since last fall.
>
> Kathy Brown deserves credit for not joining the attempt to *reduce* Internet
> users by 500,000,000 from the best projections of growth in the next five
> years. In reality, nothing in what I've heard from Kerry or Novelli will
> have any substantial impact on how many connect. The under $50 smartphone,
> the drop in the costs of wireless broadband and the 90%+ wireless coverage
> in most nations are driving a powerful increase in those connected. Africa
> will probably pass 315M Internet connections in 2017 (Cisco data), the
> population of the U.S. India has probably passed us already. China has
> twice as many broadband connections and the gap is growing.
>
> There's a very good reason ISOC wasn't part of the U.S. State Department
> Global Connect: it's all hot air and no substance. Pure pr. It's absolutely
> not multi-stakeholder. Despite three attempts, I couldn't get any
> information about the event, who would be speaking and the schedule. (I'm a
> reporter.) The meeting and two previous ones were closed. Inviting a few
> hand-picked NGOs to an event does not make it "multi-stakeholder" in any
> meaningful sense of the word.
>
> The U.S. proposals are mostly offensive, White Man's Burden type thinking.
> There's nothing in GC about the changes in what U.S. companies and
> government do. Instead, it exhorts other countries, especially poor ones,
> to do more to aid broadband in their own countries. That's insulting; the
> hundreds of policy people I've spoken to since 2012 know the importance of
> broadband, are already working hard and surprisingly successfully. Even the
> most backward countries are moving ahead. In four years Myanmar is at about
> 70% broadband wireless and is on track for 90% by the end of next year.
>
> At the WCIT in Dubai, I asked, "What are the most important things the
> International community can do to promote broadband?" Particularly from
> sub-Sahara Africa, I heard that the biggest *international* issue was the
> high, cartel-like pricing of Internet transit/backhaul, still generally 10X
> higher than, say, Poland, Only a small part of that is explained by the
> cost of the undersea cable. A second concern was the failure of the
> multinationals to pay taxes or hire locally. (Multinationals are not all
> American. MTN in South Africa was exposed by the Daily Mail as hiding
> $billions in Mauritius.)
>
> Fixes for both were very strongly opposed at the WCIT by the U.S. and our
> European allies. An effort the next fall to keep royalties reasonable was
> shot down by U.S. opposition. There were real issues with the proposals but
> everything was just shot down.
>
> If you follow the money, there is a large and increasing flow from
> developing countries to large companies, many ion the U.S. Simply reducing
> that, say by paying taxes, would do more than anything in Global Connect.
>
> I wish my country was working on the real issues but instead we put first
> the interests of large U.S. companies.
>
> Dave Burstein
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 4:02 PM, Khaled Koubaa <khaled.koubaa at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> The World Bank and U.S. Department of State co-hosted today a high level
>> event at the World Bank to support the Global Connect initiative, an effort
>> to bring 1.5 billion online by 2020.
>> I looked at the list of supporters here
>> <https://share.america.gov/global-connect-initiative-supporters/> and I
>> wondered why ISOC was not involved in that ?
>>
>> Khaled Koubaa
>> Twitter : @koubaak <https://twitter.com/koubaak>
>> LinkedIn : http://lnked.in/kkoubaa
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Editor, Fast Net News, Net Policy News and DSL Prime
> Author with Jennie Bourne  DSL (Wiley) and Web Video: Making It Great,
> Getting It Noticed (Peachpit)
>
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