Each year on 17 May, the ITU celebrates World Telecommunication Day to commemorate its founding in Paris in 1865. This year, the theme highlights the promises and the challenges of the Internet. The Internet has not only transformed the way we communicate, but it has also dramatically changed the way we work, do business, interact, play, seek information and learn.
Internet users account for only five per cent of the world s population.
So there is a real problem. The promise of the Internet is to broaden and enhance access to information through a service that can be reached anywhere in the world that has connectivity. The Internet is a way of lessening the traditional disadvantages of the developing world. Disadvantages such as distance from markets, difficulty in accessing export distribution networks could become things of the past. The Internet also offers the hope of delivering basic services such as health and education more efficiently by allowing people to follow lectures by experts and participate in a learning exchange from their very own homes and communities.