Sponsors Summary Report Conference Objective Accessibility to telecom network and Internet is fast becoming a major factor determining the competitiveness of an individual, group or society. Telecom and IT systems and solutions prevalent in the developed countries are not necessarily the best options for developing countries for making the network affordable and available to large sections of their people. The conference will focus on the needs of, and affordable solutions for, developing countries. Access to the Internet is creating a new differentiator in society. Those who have access to the Internet have access to all kinds of information.
Internet access is built upon the basic telecom network.
What is required is low cost infrastructure. Fortunately, over the last decade, optical fibre technology has already brought down the cost of the telecom backbone to a very modest level. With the separation of access nodes from the main exchange, the cost of the main exchange also amounts to a relatively small fraction of the total cost. It is, therefore, the access network which dominates the cost today. The cost of the copper local loop, used over the last hundred years, is rising continuously.