Challenges and solutions for broadband infrastructure deployment in developing countries, rural and remote areas

Experts Convene to Address Broadband Deployment Challenges in Developing Regions

During a significant workshop organized by ITU-D’s Future Networks and Spectrum Management Division and ITU-T Study Group 15, experts gathered to tackle the challenge of broadband infrastructure deployment in developing countries, rural, and remote areas. The session, moderated by Robin Zuercher, aimed to identify challenges and explore innovative solutions to achieve universal connectivity by 2030, in line with the sustainable development goals.

Walid Mathlouthi, from ITU’s Development Sector, presented the strategic goals of ITU, focusing on measuring digital development and the pursuit of universal connectivity. He discussed the Kigali Action Plan’s mandate, which emphasizes the need for reliable connectivity and the development of resilient and inclusive global telecommunication infrastructure. Mathlouthi highlighted the digital divide, with one-third of the world’s population still offline, and the disparity most pronounced in developing countries and small island states.

Mathlouthi stressed the importance of a hybrid deployment strategy that combines fibre and wireless technologies to address the rural connectivity gap. He discussed the potential of fixed wireless access (FWA), Wi-Fi, cellular, and fibre technologies, as well as the evolving role of satellite technologies, particularly LEO satellites, which offer lower latency and reduced deployment costs. Emphasizing the importance of training and resources, he mentioned the ITU Academy’s spectrum management training programme and other tools designed to assist regulators and authorities in network design and ICT infrastructure development.

Vince Ferretti from Corning Incorporated provided an update on fibre access technologies, network topologies, and innovative solutions aimed at reducing deployment time and costs. He detailed the evolution of PON technologies and the advancements that have led to increased speeds, cable density, and a reduced carbon footprint. Ferretti also discussed the importance of infrastructure sharing and open access models as strategies to extend broadband access, particularly in rural and low-density areas.

The workshop concluded with a Q&A session, where experts addressed questions about network upgrades to XGPON, the role of Wi-Fi in delivering high-speed connectivity, and the convergence of wireless and wireline connectivity. The experts agreed that while fibre may be the ideal long-term solution, wireless technologies will likely be the first step in connecting the unconnected, especially in areas without established wireline infrastructure.

Key observations from the session included the need for diverse technological solutions tailored to different regional and local contexts, the importance of considering economic models that make rural deployment sustainable, and the role of regulatory support in facilitating infrastructure sharing. Additionally, the session underscored the need for affordable devices and digital literacy among end-users to fully utilize the available bandwidth and the potential of high-speed connectivity.

In summary, the workshop underscored a multifaceted approach required to bridge the digital divide, focusing on technological innovation, skilled workforce development, economic viability, and regulatory frameworks. The session provided valuable insights into the current state of global connectivity, the challenges faced by developing countries, and the collaborative efforts needed to achieve universal connectivity by 2030.

Robin Zuercher:
We’re going to start the session. Thank you very much for joining us today in person in this room, but also remotely where I’m really pleased that you’re joining us for for the session on challenges and solutions for broadband infrastructure deployment in developing countries, rural and remote areas. I am pleased to be moderating this joint workshop of ITU’s ITU-D’s Future Networks and Spectrum Management Division and ITU-T Study Group 15 on networks, technologies and infrastructure for transport, access and home. I’m really excited to be joined here today by my colleague Walid Mathlouthi, who’s the head of the Future Networks and Spectrum Management Division of the International Telecommunication Union’s Development Sector and online by Mr. Vince Ferretti, Senior Standards Manager, Global Technical and Industry Standards from Corning Incorporated. Vince currently serves as promotion and coordination vice chair and associate rapporteur of Q5 for ITU-T Study Group 15. So these two experts here will present an update on the wireless and fiber access technologies, network topologies, as well as innovative solutions to reduce time and cost of deployment with a special focus on the challenges and infrastructure solutions to connect the unconnected in developing countries, rural and remote areas. So I think that was enough already from my side as a moderator. I’m very pleased to first give the floor to my colleague Walid for his presentation on rural connectivity, on measuring digital development in the context of ITU’s strategic goal of universal connectivity by 2030.

Walid Mathlouthi:
Thank you very much, Robin, for this nice introduction. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be here today to share the work that we’re doing within ITU and particularly in the development sector. It is particularly nice that we’re doing this presentation in the 20th anniversary of the WSIS alongside with our standardization colleagues, particularly from the Study Group 15. It was such a pleasure to prepare this talk with them. So today from the development sector, I would like to first give you an overview of our strategic goals aligned with the sustainable development goals by 2030 and the strategy that we’re putting in place in the development sector. to achieve those goals. So, first of all, most of the work I’m gonna be presenting is being carried under the Future Networks and Spectrum Management Division. This division is mandated by the Kigali Action Plan. So the plan that has been voted in the recent WTDC that happened a couple of years ago in Kigali, Rwanda. And the task is to provide reliable connectivity to everyone and develop products and services such as assessment, studies, publications, et cetera. And the objective of the network and the digital infrastructure program is mainly and primarily to assist our member states and sector members and associations in maximizing the use of new technologies for the development of their information and communication infrastructures and services and building global telecommunication infrastructure that are resilient and inclusive. So under that mandate, the division particularly is tasked to develop resilient and assist member states and our sector members in developing resilient and green ICT infrastructure, in spectrum management aspects and radio monitoring and the use of spectrum resources in the most efficient way in alignment with the radio sector regulations. Recently, we’ve been also working on assisting and providing workshops to our member states in order to be able to discuss the best way to leverage broadband satellite communications for low earth orbit, medium earth orbit and geostationary earth orbit satellite services. Of course, working on AI infrastructure and digital public infrastructure and assessing the gaps for the development of the world. And that’s it, thank you. that leads to a major effort in assessing the gaps in many of these countries. And that is being carried through the broadband mapping activity where we try to map the existing infrastructure in order to be able to assess the missing infrastructure. And that exercise is being carried with a goal of like connecting certain points of interest such as schools, refugee camps, et cetera. And of course, being in the watch of all emerging technologies that are out there that could serve the goal of achieving a universal connectivity in the next few years. So we’ve witnessed a pretty interesting and pretty nice evolution of connectivity in the past 20 years. And as you could see from this graph, we went from less than 20% of global connectivity to more than 70% as per the recent statistics in 2023. It is a comforting effort to see this evolution however, we’re still short of like achieving the goal of global connectivity, universal connectivity. So as of today, roughly around one third of the global population is still completely offline. And that breakdown varies per region with a higher percentage particularly in the developing countries and the small state islands. It is also if you look at the breakdown of these evolution over the 20 years, we see also that. it’s mainly the affluent that are really enjoying the benefits of the infrastructure, the digital infrastructure that is being deployed and the global connectivity. So as you could see here on the right side, on the left side graph, it’s in the high income side of the society, 93% are enjoying connectivity while in the low income that number is only 27%. If we look at the regional breakdown for both mobile and fixed broadband subscriptions, as you see on the right side figure, the average percentage globally for the world is 87% of mobile broadband connectivity per 100 inhabitants. That breakdown will show us only 48% for the African continent and only 75% in the Arab states. For the fixed broadband subscription, which is represented in the figure on the left side, the global world average is 19%. Africa is showing less than 1% and the Arab states are trailing by 12% as well. It is a stark difference between the different regions as you could see compared to the global average. So a lot of work needs still to be done and carried. There’s still the need to deploy infrastructure in the rural areas and in the countries and the regions that are still missing that critical infrastructure. The strategic goal from 2024 to 2027 in order to achieve this global university, global connectivity, a universal connectivity goal by 2030 in alignment with the sustainable development goal is breaking down as you could see in this kind of overcrowded strategic framework. What you could take away from this strategic framework is that the mission and the vision is to achieve universal connectivity by 2030. The Kigali plan by 2027 is to try to enable that goal and we identified certain enablers such as diversity and inclusion, a regional presence, membership-driven priorities, resource mobilization, particularly from the private sector, as well as thematic priorities. Spectrum management and future networks is one of those thematic priorities, but also cyber security is one of them, digital applications, enabling environment and innovation is another area of thematic priorities. So the main hurdles that we’re witnessing in our daily work could be classified in main four buckets. The first one clearly is the lack of infrastructure and the lack of reliable electricity sources and power grid densifications, towers and roads, etc. The second bucket is the lack of skilled labor force, qualified installers and maintenance staff to be able to maintain these networks and these ICT networks once they are deployed. The third bucket is equally important is the economic considerations, so how to make sense from a business perspective and how to make it sustainable from a business perspective to deploy all these networks in the rural areas and of course the sparse population density is one of the main factors that impact and affect such return on investment for these business cases and that’s the reason why we’re not seeing these networks being deployed because it’s hard to make sense from an investment perspective for these networks. So we really need to require further considerations and alternative business models and a lot of innovation in that area. Last but not least, affordability, so the cost of devices and equipment to deploy these ICT networks as well as like conformance and interoperability and type approval in order to make both the network deployments affordable but also the devices for the population to access these networks affordable and accessible as well. So that’s also as important and as critical as all the other previously mentioned buckets. The different technologies that could be considered for the different pieces of the networks, it’s an overcrowded slide here, but there’s the access part where we could consider technologies such as fixed wireless access, Wi-Fi, cellular but also fiber technologies, backhaul technologies

Robin Zuercher:
that also could be covered by wireless and also fiber ring topologies and then the breakdown for like the international internet and the international transit through subsea cables, cable landing stations and primary networks. primary nodes and primary ring, national ring topologies. Gamut of technologies could cover these different ones. So we can go from a fiber access and GPON technologies and ITU is playing a major role in that front by developing the necessary standards such as the PON standards, as well as the WADM standards that are powering subsea connectivity. But also we are seeing more and more presence of satellite technologies, which evolved from the expensive VSAT satellite connectivity to today’s direct to cell connectivity for the expanding low earth orbit constellations. So there’s a variety of technologies that could be considered for different cases and for different regions. And we are working with the future network division within BDT to kind of equip our members with the right tools to be able to understand which technology would make sense in which area and for which cases. And we’re trying to build a gap analysis that is followed by an open source business plan and toolkit that could be leveraged by the regulators and the authorities that we can make available through digital public goods to be able to estimate and classify for different areas and geographical areas, the different technologies that could make sense for the different parts of the network. So as I just mentioned, different technologies could provide different fits and different solutions for the rural broadband infrastructure. So with IMT technologies, of course, for the wireless access. 3G, 4G, 5G, and eventually 6G as we’re aiming at 2030, wireless local area networks, Wi-Fi, WiMAX fixed wireless access, satellite access technologies, backhaul connectivity using microwave and millimeter wave radio technologies. These technologies also can work hand-in-hand to complement the fiber access technologies such as the fiber-to-the-home or the fiber-to-the-node access networks. The fiber technologies represent a much more reliable solution and future-proof solution. However, it’s a much more costly solution. So I think the solution going towards 2030 and in order for us to achieve the universal goal is to come up with a hybrid and complementary deployment strategies leveraging both fiber technologies and wireless access technologies in order to tackle the rural gaps. As I mentioned, based on the ITU radio recommendations and ITU-R report, the most recent one in 2022,

Walid Mathlouthi:
fixed wireless access, also known as FWA, could be a very nice immediate solution for remote connectivity and connecting sparsely and low dense areas, lower densely populated areas. It is interesting also to consider the satellite access technologies and in this slide I’ll try to summarize the different solutions out there. The geo-synchronous or the geo-orbit satellite connectivity at an altitude of 35,000 kilometers. The satellite here is constantly in the same position towards the coverage areas, however latency is much more, is much higher. The cost of course is also ranging from 100 to 400 million US dollars for the deployment of such satellites. The lifetime, the lifespan is around 15 to 20 years. LEO on the other end of the spectrum, low Earth orbit is a much lower altitude with much lower, with much lower latencies, which allows also for applications such as direct-to-cell connectivity, which we are witnessing the deployment of recently more deployments such as the announced T-Mobile working with SpaceX and with other low Earth orbit constellations as well. The cost for the deployment on average is much lower also, however the lifetime span is much shorter, ranging between 5 to 10 years. With that I’ll stop here and I’ll wrap it up by pointing out the different products and the different training modules that we’re making available through the work that we’re doing with the division. So there’s many training modules that we’re making available through the ITU Academy, particularly on spectrum. The most popular one of the spectrum management training program that we put in place for regulators. Also introduction to spectrum management, network design, ICT infrastructure and ICT business plan and toolkit. We’re proud to announce that we reached more than 65 regulators across the globe. These are extensive training that will take a couple of months. is self-paced and the final delivery is instructor-based. You can find all the information in the following links in the slides that we’re making available. Last mile connectivity solutions and last mile connectivity toolkit including bandwidth calculator, bandwidth estimation, as well as like school connectivity toolkit as well. We’ve done a lot of work also in conformance and interoperability type approval, assisting developing countries in setting up their own conformance and interoperability laboratories and again you can find a lot of the information and the training that we’re making available in the links and the slides here. We are also providing assistance in IMT 2020, 5G, 5G deployment, resilience as we have recently a couple of days ago with a deputy secretary-general. We announced a coalition and a call for action for assessing the resilience of subsea cables as well as protection of these critical infrastructure and we will be following that up with an Abuja forum. We are also working on the communication in Nigeria. With that I will stop here and give the floor over back to you.

Robin Zuercher:
Thanks a lot Waleed for this introduction and we’ll hopefully have some time to deep dive into some of the areas that you’ve mentioned in the Q&A section so I just want to take a brief moment to already let you know that of course questions will be welcome after the presentation from Vince so please make sure you prepare them in your mind and also I invite the audience online to put them in the chat already so that we can follow up after the second presentation so without further ado do, I’d like to give the floor to Vince Ferretti from Corning Incorporated, who will present on behalf of ITU-T study group 15. And he will provide an update on fiber access technologies, network topologies, and innovative solutions to reduce time and cost of deployment. Vince, the floor is yours.

Vince Ferretti:
Thank you for that introduction. And thank you, Walid, for your presentation. And I’m just about to, are you seeing the correct slide? Am I in presenter mode? Yes, we can see it. Thank you. Okay, great. All right. So, so appreciate the first presentation. And I’m going to quickly talk about what ITU-T does, specifically study group 15. And that what the things that we’re working on and the tools that we’re developing to overcome some of the challenges for infrastructure deployment. So who is ITU-T study group 15? We are a group of experts from around the world that develop transport access, and home network standards. This includes component standards for fiber and cable, and other passive equipment as well as the electronics. ITU-T study group 15 has one of the most downloads by any ITU group. Our 652, GJOT 652 fiber specification is actually the most downloaded recommendation in the industry. So I think Walid already really set this up. So I’m going to be able to go a little faster. But clearly, fiber access technologies give you the most reliable broadband technology to connect homes, premises and cell sites. But they’re not always the cheapest. So what have we been working on over the last 20 years? That has been to make innovations and to improve the cost per bit for these technologies so that they can reach more people in more areas. There’s been tremendous development also in the download and upload speeds for networks, in cable density, in reducing the carbon footprint, and I’ll talk about some of those, and in working to simplify and reduce deployment costs. So as well as mitigating labor challenges, all the things that Lalit talked about. When I talk about the fiber optics technologies, there’s really two. There’s point-to-multipoint also typically called PONs, where you have a single fiber going out to a neighborhood or or a grouping of buildings and or homes, could be businesses, where the power is then split, the optical power split to all those homes. Or versus a point-to-point where now you have a lot more fiber, and each fiber goes from the central office out to the home. So that’s just the level setting definitions, point-to-multipoint, point-to-point. When we talk about the speeds, if you think about what’s happened over the last 25 years, BPON started in the downstream rate for 32 users was shared. They were sharing 622 megabytes, and that was really almost completed by or upgraded by 2003 when GPON started. And now for 64 users, users are sharing 2.5 gig down and 1.25 gig up. So you can actually get burst speeds of one gig. So that’s the most widely deployed optical access system in the world today. But it’s going to be quickly overcome by XG and XGS PON. So it’s four times faster now for 10 gig. So 10 gig is being now deployed. And now we’re looking at up to 128 users sharing that bandwidth. Other things, there’s even a 40 gig PON standard that’s deployed in a few areas. And then right now, the ITU-T is working on 50 gig. And even looking at next generation after 50 gig. So as I said, the speeds are going up. And that is great for bandwidth. If there’s already copper, and in some areas there are, then there are also fiber to the edge technologies that have been developed to continue to use that copper as long as you can. And these are VDSL or fiber to the extension point technologies, which can save money by utilizing the copper that’s still in the ground. So from a topology standpoint, I showed in this point to multipoint, you can have a centralized split where you split out to all the homes. Or you can actually do a two-level architecture. And this uses less fiber. And you can get further in more rural areas. And really, what’s now being actually coming out to, again, reduce cost is a tap architecture where instead of the split being even, it’s an uneven split. split and you just drop off enough bandwidth for the users as you go down a path. And what that allows you to do again is go further and and really really address the rural market with less fiber. So you really just have one fiber going down the whole path. So that’s for one OLT or one line terminal. So switching to point-to-point which is really used in for remote wireless towers and now small cells. And point-to-point was at one gigabit per second as you can see back in 2010. But you know we’ve just published a hundred gigabits per second for point-to-point. And that is actually mostly being used for front haul and back haul of these new towers that are being deployed for the 5G network which is the way to get mobile broadband to many more people. Again this access architecture is point-to-point so you’re going to have a one fiber going from the line terminal out to the network terminal instead of where you had point-to-multipoint. It’s bi-directional though so you have one wavelength down and one wavelength up of light on the same fiber. So that does save fibers also by using bi-directional technologies. I show this it’s a very busy slide it’s more a tool for you to use when you if you want to download this later. But it shows for a typical network all the ITU specific locations that are out there for the components from fiber to cable to closures all the way to drop cables and then what the associated ITU standard is that you can download for free from the ITU website. And that’s where ITU is trying to give you the tools to be able to develop your own procedures for installing these networks. So what are the challenges? While we talked about a lot of them, we’ve been working on trying to speed up deployment. We recognize there’s a shortage of skilled labor. Often there’s limited space and there’s a demand for reliability in tough environmental conditions. And so things that have been innovations that are going on is more pre-connectorized or factory terminated solutions that reduces the amount of splicing that has to happen in the field. And you have more of a plug and play network, which is easier and you can have less skilled labor install it. Smaller products give you a reduced carbon footprint, which is important for sustainability. And this densification, more cables and terminals being deployed in less space. Finally, simpler products, trying to make it really easy to deploy a network and not take as much training. I’m going to talk about these pre-connectorized or factory terminated solutions. By doing all the work in the factory and having plug and play out in the field, you eliminate a lot of the work that might have to happen in the field. These connectors are environmentally hardened so that they’re reliable. They work in all types of temperature environments and dirt, dirty environments. So it’s more so you get a more cost-effective overall total cost of ownership over time. I talked about a densification. This is important as you go to smaller fibers and smaller cables. Number one you reduce your CO2 footprint.

Robin Zuercher:
On this slide the wording is quite small. Could you share your full screen because we can only see the slide sharing option.

Vince Ferretti:
Oh I thought I was doing that. I’m sorry. Is that better? Perfect thank you. Okay sorry I thought I had fixed that. I apologize. So again in here and I again for the, I apologize for the wording being so small, but this is for you to take back as a tool as a listener. But having smaller cables and micro cables that allows us to get more fiber in less space and easier deployments with less expensive. The other thing that’s happening is how we’re deploying fiber. You know trenching used to be very deep and it’s getting, we’ve gone from traditional trenching to micro trenching and now actually even putting fiber in roadways that you know that are just underneath the surface of the of the road. So again this allows you to do things quickly with less labor and less disruption for civils. I had to figure it out. Okay. All right. Similarly, similar to all the component specifications or standards and recommendations. ITU also has a architecture for these cable innovations documents. This is our L series, our L100 series, and this talks through how you would deploy these cables in ducts, tunnels, so now we’re talking about the application, as well as direct surface application, microducts, and aerial, and so it gives you a lot of guidance on, as well as, not just guidance, but it gives you experiences from all other countries and what they’ve done. So, what’s some other things you could do to share the cost? Well, there can be passive infrastructure sharing. This is where multiple carriers could share towers, poles, or ducts, or premises. In this case, the active networks electronics remain proprietary to the individual operators, and so you don’t save as much, but it is the simplest form of infrastructure sharing. To get more cost-effective sharing, electronic infrastructure, such as switches, radio access nodes, can be shared. Some passive network elements, potentially sharing fibers within a cable. Not done as much because it takes a little bit more work up front and complicates operational procedures, and it makes service differentiation between different vendors difficult, but regulation is key in helping this infrastructure sharing along, and I think infrastructure sharing is another way to help reach more people, especially in the rural areas and developing countries. There is also an open access network model where the owner-operator of the network doesn’t supply the services, but just builds the network and then allows Internet service providers to have wholesale access to the network. You can either do that with the network being owned by one company and the ISPs delivering services, or you can even have another physical layer of the network owned by one company, but it might be owned and maintained by, operated and maintained by a second company. This is another way to do it, but it’s not super popular yet, but I think it will get more take rate as we go and try and overcome the challenges of rural and low-population density areas. That’s what I had. Thank you, and I appreciate your time.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you very much, Vince, for this presentation. I’d just like to see if there’s questions from the audience here in the room or online. Yes, please go ahead and please state your name and your organization. Thank you.

Audience:
Hello. Good afternoon. My name is Ian Duarte. I’m from ABRINCH, which is the Brazilian Association of Internet Service Providers. Well, in Brazil, the small ISPs have been working primarily on fiber and FTTH, fiber to the homes. I would like to hear a bit about when they start upgrading the networks to XGPON, so you’re moving to 10 gigabytes of speed. How can we deliver that into households when our users are mainly using wireless access nowadays? How can we improve with Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7 when we’re also discussing limiting spectrum for Wi-Fi? How can we move forward with our networks as well?

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you very much for the question. Waleed, is there something you would like to answer to this?

Walid Mathlouthi:
Yeah, I can take a stab at that. Vince, you want to chime in or you want me to go first? You can go first. Okay. So, I’m not sure I understand the part about the spectrum. I think today there’s enough spectrum for Wi-Fi to deliver up to 10 gig, particularly with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7. I think the challenge here is, first of all, the capability of the devices, the device end. They need to be affordable devices that are able to take these speeds. Even with the MIMO and everything that is out there, today I think I have a 10 gigabit per second capability in my pod network at home in Switzerland here, but my device is able to do only like 600 megabit per second. That’s number one. Number two, I’m going to take my, in my previous life I was with Google Fiber deploying gigabit fiber networks. And the statistics that we were looking at, we were making multi-gigabit connectivity available at homes. And the average usage speed was 1.6 megabit per second. So, there’s also a lot of digital literacy in order to have the end user be able to leverage that massive bandwidth that we’re offering. I don’t think anyone today, even in the room here or in the audience, is able to consume 10 gigabit per second unless you actually either start a business or deploy a data center at your home. I think, for us, it was very clear, from my network engineering days, it was very clear to look and understand the outliers. If we had like some PON usage that was higher than 2 megabit per second, it was clearly someone that was reselling the bandwidth. So, if we’re giving you gigabit per second, that’s a lot that could power up the whole apartment building, which is fine. I mean, that’s another use case. I mean, it’s fine whatever bandwidth consumption is there. So again, also like the application that need to drive such a bandwidth need to be in place and there needs to be an ecosystem. Some of the operators, for example, in Korea are trying to build an ecosystem around virtual reality or augmented reality, which drives higher the bandwidth. So also like the limitations is more also in the equipment at home. So the CPE, if the CPE is high end and able to deliver the multi local area, multi connection to the local area network at home, also at reasonable price points. So I don’t know about the experience in Brazil, but the devices that are able to deliver such bandwidth are extremely expensive. So still, it’s a combination between the use case, the end user device, and also like the business case for the ISP to deliver those speeds. And I’ll stop there. I don’t know, Vince, if you want to chime in.

Vince Ferretti:
Yeah, no, I agree with everything you said. Even in the U.S. today, most of the deployment is GPON and it’s not often that somebody’s actually using all the bandwidth that they have available. And so 10 GPON allows you to hook up more users to the same line terminal. So you get an economy of scale. And then using 10 GPON that’s synchronous, 10 up, 10 down, not really seeing that or seeing 10 down and two and a half up. So, that’s even double what GPON is, which is 1.25 up. So, but I understand, you know, I’m trying to figure out how do you overcome most people or are they using their wireless as their network in the home. And so, they’re using the cellular instead of running fiber to the home, I’m assuming. So, how do you get more take rate? I think it depends on the application that Walid was talking about. You’ve got to have the applications. Even if you have a 4K TV in your house, once, it really only needs compressed about 25 meg per TV. So, versus a, you know, a phone doesn’t even need that much because it’s a much smaller screen. So, I don’t know if that helps. Thanks.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you very much, Vince and Walid, for answering the question. And there’s another question in the room here. Go ahead, please.

Audience:
Hello, I’m Rania. I’m a system hardware engineer. I want to first start by thanking Walid and Vince for this great presentation. And I guess it was a wake-up call for me looking at some numbers, like we are in 2024 and more of one third of the words are still not connected. So, I guess my question is, how can we convert or how, what do you think of the use of conversions of wireless and wireline connectivity to achieve more of a global connectivity?

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you very much for the question. I’m just checking if we should turn around and check with Vince first if he wants to go first and then Walid, I’ll give it to you.

Vince Ferretti:
Thanks. I think the, from a wireline standpoint, that’s going to come second in these. And for the unconnected, I think wireless is always going to be first because it’s overall cheaper for the user. But So, where Wireline is going to come into effect initially is really in the back hall of the wireless towers. So, as you densify towers, if you can get less satellite and more towers, you have a more reliable network that you can get higher speeds. So, I think the first place to build out the network is the transport network to get fiber from tower to tower where you can. And then, that helps fiber move closer, but I think wireless will always be the go-to to begin.

Walid Mathlouthi:
Thanks, Vince. I’m a fiber believer, so I oversee, I forecast like a word in the long term where everybody has access to fiber, and I think it will take some time, but we’ll eventually get there. In the meantime, I think we’ll see a world where like the two technologies will live hand in hand and will be deployed in a hybrid way. In some markets, unfortunately, the Wireline infrastructure is not quite there. For example, in the African markets, what we see is that it’s wireless first. There’s very little fiber to the home, very little Wireline. So, most of the millennial generation is only using mobile. So, it’s mobile first. So, in those markets, I think it will mainly remain mobile for a long time. As Vince mentioned, the backhaul will be probably using leveraging fiber. But again, I might be a dreamer, but I see a world where fiber will be everywhere.

Robin Zuercher:
Thanks a lot, Walid and Vince. Unfortunately, we’re out of time, but there is one question online, and I feel like I’m having sleepless nights if this question is going to change the world. So, Turhan from Intel, if you could keep your question very, very brief, and then we’ll ask Walid. and Vince to give their answers briefly.

Audience:
Sure. Thank you. First of all, I would like to thank for the excellent presentation. In fact, this is just a comment, not a question. I believe that the national fibre strategy is very important to bring the fibre to the homes and the rural areas. For example, India is implementing the largest kind of rural connectivity project to bring the fibre connectivity to all the villages in India. And it is also important to note that India is using the universal service fund for this largest kind of project in the world. Thank you.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you very much. Even better that it was a comment and not a question. All right. Thank you very much, everyone here in the room and online for joining us and to the excellent experts, Walid and Vince, for their presentations.

Walid Mathlouthi:
And thank you very much, Robin.

Vince Ferretti:
Thank you.