What is the World Broadband Association?
The World Broadband Association (WBBA) is a multilateral, industry-led association, providing leadership for digital broadband innovation across the next decade.
Our objective is to overcome industry challenges and drive the provision of networks and services for all. We aim to accelerate the healthy development of the global telecom industry, creating sustainable benefits for stakeholders, end users, and society.
The WBBA is an independent legal entity registered in Switzerland.
Our Vision
We envision a world where everyone has access to high-speed, reliable and affordable connectivity. The WBBA provides an open, multilateral platform for industry cooperation and partnership. Through collaboration with standards and policy organizations, we champion benefits that converged networks and cloud infrastructure can bring.
Our Mission
The World Broadband Association (WBBA) bring AI, Cloud, and broadband industry leaders to pursue three common goals: Address global broadband industry challenges, create a collective voice, and shape the future of broadband innovation. We are dedicated to closing the digital divide and maximizing the social, environmental and economic benefits for all.
Addressing Industry Challenges
The WBBA was founded to address seven key broadband industry challenges. They are:
- 3B people – will be still unconnected by 2024
- BB access speeds vary significantly by country, inequalities in infrastructure & service delivery
- 3B people – will be still unconnected by 2024
Developing Impactful Broadband Regulation and Policy
- Regulators and policymakers can’t rely on market forces alone to deliver ubiquitous BB – new broadband investment models are needed
- Regulatory complexity and diversity in different countries is hindering growth prospects
- BB RoIs for telecoms service providers are very low, rarely going above 1%
- Next-gen PON FTTx to residential subscribers, SMBs, larger enterprises, and backhaul increase RoI
- Demand-revenue-investment conundrum impacts RoIs
- FBB ensures reliability, low jitter, and low latency – all key for industry vertical IoT transformation
- Industrial IoT can deliver payback across a range of operational KPIs – and commonly relies on FBB connections
- Broadband is a key enabler for driving enterprise digital transformation
- Broadband access reliability, coverage, and customer service matter as much as high-speed
- Quality of experience (QoE) is becoming a key requirement
- Networks must be ready to flex to support future services and business models
- FTTH offers the best opportunity for supporting long-term evolution of future services – but presents some challenges
- The road to future advanced digital services requires gigabit technologies, edge-cloud and network automation
Environmental Sustainability Challenge
- Eco-friendly solutions are required to accommodate widescale broadband growth.
- Bridging broadband access and ecological responsibility is vital for a sustainable industry future.
