Over the past year, we’ve seen businesses tap into resiliency to meet customer needs, take their workforce virtual and transform their operations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, as the Delta variant sweeps across the globe, it will be this resiliency that organizations can use to overcome emerging challenges – particularly in cybersecurity. Today, cyber espionage groups and cybercriminals are …
Mobile broadband and digital inclusion: Telecom in the 2000s
The new millennium opened with high optimism over the industry’s resilience – and relentless progress — after the non-disruption of Y2K and the burst of the dotcom stock bubble. Renewed expansion focused on emerging markets, cutting-edge mobile technologies, and new services and applications beyond network infrastructure. “You do not have to create new demand in the world,” said Yoshio Utsumi, …
Data and the global networked society: Telecom in the 1990s
As the industry expanded, so did its impact on an increasingly interconnected world. And so, too, did the definitive industry conference and exhibition. In its inaugural 1971 edition, the flagship Telecom event convened by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had welcomed some 70,000 visitors and 250 exhibitors. By the end of the 1990s, ITU Telecom attracted more than 175,000 participants …
The dawn of mobile and e-mail: Telecom in the 1980s
After the introduction of computer-led network operation in the late 1970s, the telecommunications industry was in for even bigger changes in the 1980s. The new decade would usher in enormous changes in technology, industry structure, policy and regulation. The innovative eighties heralded mobile telephony, the first standards for e-mail, and an accelerating convergence between computing and communication technologies. The flagship …
Satellites and switching: Telecom in the 1970s
When the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) opened World TELECOM 1971 in Geneva 50 years ago, officials proclaimed the dazzling new conference and exhibition a “message to the 21st century.” “All those who had the opportunity to visit the various stands were able to appreciate the fundamental role played by ITU in the spectacular evolution of telecoms techniques and in the …
ITU Telecom celebrates its 50th anniversary
One of the key annual events of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has just turned 50. ITU Telecom has evolved over the years to reflect a rapidly evolving industry ecosystem. But international cooperation to connect the world remains at the core of the conference and exhibition series. The first-ever Telecom, featuring a high-level conference combined with a major international telecommunications …
Greening the Blue – and ITU
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are crucial building blocks for a greener and more sustainable, connected world. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for ICTs, is at the forefront of this transformation, cultivating global cooperation in fields ranging from smart cities and Earth observation to tackling natural disaster risks, e-waste, and energy consumption. In addition to raising …
Appy Saude: The Angolan e-health start-up unlocking accessible healthcare
Searching unsuccessfully for a specific medicine prescribed by his doctors, a very sick man living in rural Angola listened by chance to a radio interview with Appy Saude, an e-health start-up based in the capital city of Luanda. He contacted Appy, who promptly sourced the very last units available on the Angolan market of the drug he so desperately needed – …
Meet OKO Finance: Building climate resilience through digital financial inclusion in Africa
Israeli start-up OKO Finance have a clear objective: to be known and trusted by smallholder farmers across Africa as the market leader in crop insurance, to protect farmers from loss of income due to adverse weather and to provide access to financial tools. And by winning the ITU Virtual Digital World 2020 SME Awards, the fledgling fintech is one step closer to meeting …
Meet Astrome: The deep tech start-up aiming to bridge India’s digital divide
India-based deep tech start-up Astrome sees its innovative wireless solution as a way to connect the country’s rural and semi-urban areas. Its use of millimetre wave wireless communication to provide fibre-like backhaul capacity for 4G and 5G infrastructure has won Astrome the SME Award in the Connectivity category at ITU Virtual Digital World, the 2020 online edition of leading UN tech event …