Canada left out of ITU Broadband Commission

Canada may not have a representative on the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) Broadband Commission for Digital Development, but experts say Canada could still play an important role. In an effort to reduce the international “digital divide”—the barrier between those who have access to broadband services and those who don’t—the ITU and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) earlier this year created the Broadband Commission for Digital Development. The commission aims to study strategies for worldwide broadband rollout, and how broadband can improve healthcare, education, safety, and other services in poor countries. Consisting of 56 representatives from around the world, the commission will report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit in New York on Sept. 19. But at first glance, it doesn’t seem that Canada will have much to do with the Broadband Commission. Of the 56 people involved, including co-chairs, vice-chairs and commissioners, none is Canadian. The commission is co-chaired by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, and Carlos Slim Hélu, honorary lifetime chairman of Grupo Carso, which provides telecommunications services in Mexico. Commissioners include John Chambers, CEO of network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc., Google Inc. vice-president Vint Cerf, and Stephen Conroy, the Australian government’s minister for broadband. But why aren’t there any Canadians? “Frankly, I hadn’t even thought of it,” Gary Fowlie, head of the ITU’s UN liaison office in New York, said in an interview. “We wanted a mix of content providers, the public sector, and the private sector. I can’t tell you why a Canadian name didn’t come up.” He said it’s possible that Canadian representatives on the ITU didn’t forward a name for consideration. A native of Saskatchewan educated in Alberta who has worked for the CBC, Fowlie said he almost feels “guilty” about not having any Canadians on the commission. Industry Canada did not respond by deadline to a question about whether Canada had put forward candidates. In an email, Sarah Parkes, a spokeswoman for the ITU, said that the ITU and UNESCO drew up the list of commission participants, looking for people who had “been visionary in achieving broadband implementation or who are very actively driving broadband in their respective spheres.” Parkes added that “nationality wasn't a selection criteria.” Catherine Middleton, Canada research chair and associate professor at Ryerson University, said Canada has lost some clout in the communications world, which may explain why Canada isn’t represented on the commission. “My sense is that, internationally, Canada’s reputation as ... one of the countries actively pursuing an information society agenda ... has disappeared in the last few years,” she said, adding that the federal government’s digital economy consultation process “is an attempt to get back on track.” But Fowlie said Canadians have a good reputation at the ITU and within the communications industry overall. He pointed to Canadian Christopher Clark, who was instrumental in the ITU’s Connect Africa project, which raised $5 billion to help bring communications infrastructure to the continent. Canadian professor Harold Innis was the first communication economist, and scholar Marshall McLuhan got the world thinking about “the medium is the message.” Canadian company Northern Telecom helped digitize telephone systems, and Research In Motion Ltd. helped make broadband access mobile. Canada can support the Broadband Commission’s efforts, perhaps by adjusting its collective mindset about broadband globally, Fowlie said. Broadband is not an “extra,” he said. “Yes, you do have to feed people first. You want to have . You need water. But if you have information communications technology, you have the ability to ... maximize the benefits you get from them.” David Ellis, a course director in communications studies at York University and a digital strategy consultant, said it’s just as well that Canada isn’t on the Broadband Commission. Canada has its own digital divide to deal with, he said. “My fear is that Canada gets distracted by any kind of international initiative that is designed to go after the digital divide,” he said. “It’s going to reinforce the perception that the digital divide is about making people who live in rural Canada come up to par with people who live in urban Canada. This is going to be looked at as our microcosm of the developed and developing worlds.” He said Canada’s digital divide has shifted from an urban-rural issue to a poverty issue. “We have thousands and thousands of poor families in the heart of Montreal, Toronto and other big cities who simply can’t afford broadband. They’re on the wrong side of the digital divide, and no one in Ottawa is paying any attention to them,” he said. Canadian governments and the communications industry need a new approach to broadband, Ellis said. “They seem to assume that broadband is a desirable outcome of certain kinds of investment strategies and technology deployments.” But, he added, broadband “has to be an input.” Middleton agreed that broadband is a starting point. “There was an assumption in the early days, when people were transitioning from dial-up to broadband that ... they would somehow be better, more sophisticated, more involved, more engaged Internet users,” she said. “The work that I’ve done looking at Statistics Canada data suggests that isn’t really true.” In her work, Middleton has found that only 40 per cent of Canadians use the Internet at home for five hours or more per week. “It comes back to that question, what do we really do with the Internet? How much do we use it?” she said. “It seems like it’s not as intense as it could be.” Fowlie said broadband development for its own sake isn’t enough. The ITU expects that the Broadband Commission’s report will help the UN make the link between technology and society. “The hope is that member states will adopt the appropriate strategies that will help deliver on the millennium development goals,” Fowlie said. news@thewireport.ca

Canada left out of ITU Broadband Commission

News | July 23, 2010

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