COVID-19 makes universal digital access and cooperation essential: ITU
As the COVID-19 pandemic reshapes the way in which we work, keep in touch, go to school and shop for essentials – across the world – it has never been more important to bridge the digital divide for the 3.6 billion people who remain off-line. This according to top experts from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), who outlined the implications of the new coronavirus pandemic during a digital briefing to correspondents accredited to the UN in Geneva.
“Digital new society already came into our life, but we never imagined that we could be forced to stay at home and to use the digital worlds to connect ourselves and make our business continue. So that is something absolutely new,” said the ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, who said that we should all be grateful for work being put in behind the scenes of the pandemic by workers in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). Workers of the ICT sector were described by another ITU official as “unsung heroes” of the pandemic.
“We should also recognize that ICT services and ICT networks are not so easy to manage, because nobody could imagine, that under such circumstances that traffic could to some extent triple,” Mr. Zhao said, referencing the massive surge for videoconferencing and mobile telephony traffic that the health crisis has engendered.
One important challenge has been the massive shift in the need for broadband away from urban office buildings, toward the suburban and rural where people are now telecommuting from their homes.
“Additional spectrum has been identified,”said Mario Maniewicz, Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau, adding that such resources can be used by countries “for new technologies that can help provide coverage at affordable prices to underserved communities. These technologies are both satellite and terrestrial, and can cover large areas, and they promise to enable affordable broadband access in rural and remote areas.”
Mr. Maniewicz added that now that spectrum has been allocated governments must make use of these existing allocations to enable the telecommunications providers to do their job of servicing this “universal need” for broadband access.
The call for universal access to broadband has never been more keenly felt, said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the International Telecommunication Union: “ There’s a lot of talk about defining the new normal in the post-Covid world and for me ‘new normal’ needs to include broadband access for all.”
With 1.5 billion children currently out of school, Ms. Bogdan-Martin pointed to the desperate need for digital partnership such the initiative ITU is currently undertaking with UNICEF, known as the GIGA initiative, to ensure that schooling everywhere can be provided through online platforms. At the same time, she said, the ITU saw a need to accelerate the provision of global online child protection guidelines, which are now expected to be issued in the next two weeks.
A worrying development has been the massive spike in cyber-crime that has accompanied the shift to digital in the COVID-19 crisis.
“The COVID-19 crisis has also resulted in a huge surge of online criminal activity. Bad actors have been exploiting fear and uncertainty, and my own cyber-security team has set up an online repository to really help countries be able to protect their network, businesses and of course their users. And then linked to this is of course the risks for children,” said Ms. Bogdan-Martin. One telecoms company, Vodaphone, was cited as having reported 300-fold rise in phishing attacks through its systems since the pandemic started.
For all the dangers that current scenario presents, and for basic challenges such as the unavailability of electric power the ITU officials remained optimistic about the opportunities that are afforded by the present crisis to leverage new-found political to deliver connectivity for all.
In addition to expanding access globally, the ITU has been studying different technologies that have been submitted to it for contact-tracing during the pandemic, although Dr Reinhard Scholl, the Deputy Director of the organization’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, said that the world would have to wait for the “dust to settle” before recommendations could be made as to which works best.
The ITU’s top official, Mr. Zhao, said that as the world contemplates the post-COVID future, the global development of 5G networks would be absolutely essential to deliver such services as remote surgery and autonomous driving. Plans for 5G would have to be included in national development strategies, he said.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk made the following remarks to the Human Rights Council annual panel on adverse impacts of climate change.
1
1
2
Edited News | WHO
The first meagre midweek delivery of urgently needed medical goods to enter Gaza in months will provide scant relief to the enclave’s people, who continue to be shot and killed as they search for food, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
2
1
2
Statements , Edited News | HRC
Enhanced interactive dialogue on the High Commissioner’s report on Myanmar presented by Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and oral update by Thomas Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
1
1
1
Press Conferences | WHO
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing, which was attended by the representatives and spokespersons of the World Health Organisation, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the World Meteorological Organisation.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNOG
The conflict-impacted people of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) urgently need much more international assistance than they are getting today, the UN’s top aid official said on Thursday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR
Forms of sex-based violence against women and girls, and the concept of consent in relation to violence against women and girls
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNCTAD
How AI and the digital economy intersect with labor markets, policy gaps, and global equity – Background briefing ahead of Ai for Good Summit
1
1
2
Edited News | UNOG
Violence in Myanmar is spiralling as the military junta increases its attacks on monasteries, schools and camps sheltering people uprooted by the civil war, a top independent human rights investigator warned on Wednesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR
Press conference by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan on Palestinians killed seeking food in Gaza
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR
Call for Solidarity and Peace: Addressing the Normalization of Violence and Arctic Militarization Risks through Indigenous Peoples’ Examples, Including Insights from the Independent Expert’s Visit to Denmark and Greenland
1
1
1
Press Conferences | ITU , OHCHR , UNCTAD , UNESCO , UNHCR
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing, which was attended by the representatives and spokespersons of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Telecommunication Union, and the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization.