Laying the Foundation for the Internet Economy

Since the Seoul Declaration, access to broadband networks and the Internet have constantly increased. In terms of fixed broadband, penetration levels are close to maturity. In addition, further deployments of fibre networks have taken place; however, overall deployment of fibre is still at an early stage. On the mobile broadband side, 3G coverage is high and data traffic is expected to grow significantly. In terms of policies, national broadband plans have contributed to increasing access to the Internet. Some countries have furthermore invested public funds in the deployment of fibre networks.