World broadband association established to reduce digital divide

The World Broadband Association, or WBBA, has been established to help reduce the digital divide and create a booming digital economy for the world.

Operating as a global association, the WBBA is a non-profit organization under Swiss Law, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. At present, eleven leading enterprises around the world have joined the membership.

Zhang Yunming, vice-minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China’s top industry regulator, said the digital economy is becoming a key force in reshaping the global economic structure and changing the global competition pattern.

Efforts are needed to build WBBA into the world's first international association for the development of the cloud and broadband industry, Zhang said.

Ke Ruiwen, chairman of China Telecom, said the company partnered with domestic and foreign enterprises and institutions to establish WBBA, with the aim to unite the global cloud and broadband industrial chain, reduce the digital gap, promote industrial communication and exchange, strengthen technical cooperation and achieve the prosperity of the world broadband industry.

Li Zhengmao, nominated board member of WBBA, said that, currently, the world broadband industry is facing three major problems. First, the development of broadband is unbalanced, the digital divide still exists. According to the latest report of International Telecommunication Union, 2.7 billion people still haven't accessed the internet.

Second, the overall construction level of broadband is not high. Traditional Cable network is still widely used in many regions.

Third, the industrial ecology is not healthy, the supply side and demand side are unbalanced, Li said.

According to him, the prosperity of the world broadband industry needs the joint efforts and coordination of various parties in the industrial ecology.