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August 6, 2024

The World Broadband Association (WBBA) Membership Exceeds 100

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On August 1st, WBBA achieved an important milestone with its membership exceeding 100, covering more than 30 countries across five continents. This marks a new stage of development for the association, with its global influence achieving a qualitative leap.

Currently, WBBA is committed to the following work:

  1. Promoting high-level international cooperation and exchanges, establishing a global summit system to significantly enhance global influence.;
  2. Strengthening the construction of high-standard association organizations, improving the governance framework to significantly enhance governance level;
  3. Undertaking high-quality technological innovation cooperation, building an ecosystem to significantly enhance the cohesion of the cloud and broadband industry.

The association actively participates in the ITU's Partner2Connect program and engages in multi-level, multi-field, and all-around cooperation with organizations such as GSMA, WTO, OECD, WEF, and WIC. Continuously expanding the industry ecosystem, WBBA has formed a "1+2+N" global summit system, including the annual WBBA event in Paris and the Broadband Development Congress held concurrently with the MWC in Barcelona and Shanghai. In the future, WBBA will also hold regional meetings in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to discuss the challenges, trends, and key initiatives for high-quality development of the global cloud and broadband industry with its member partners. WBBA will gather global consensus and expand its global influence.

WBBA adheres to the belief that technological innovation is the core competitiveness, and has been continuously pushing forward the research on the cloud and broadband industry as an important service for member units and a leading force for industrial development. The association has established 7 working groups so far, including:

WG1-Generational Roadmap & Demand Side Requirements and Timing: By better understanding the scale, nature and timing of the future demand for services and applications, the first WBBA working group is responsible for the Next Generation Broadband Roadmap.

WG2-Broadband advocacy: Developing a set of arguments for why it is important and beneficial to invest in developing broadband.

WG3-Environmental Sustainability: Embracing sustainability as a core element of corporate strategy offers great potential for the telecom industry, enabling companies to mitigate risks, improve operational efficiencies, enhance their reputation, access capital and drive innovation.

WG4-Network technology: Understanding the landscape of cloud network convergence, assessing and advising on how to achieve “cloud and network as one” and realise congestion-free new transport infrastructure with better network elastic scalability, enhanced intelligence, and true deterministic experience.

WG5- WBBA Broadband and Cloud Development Index: The purpose of the research is to support the development and growth of the broadband and cloud industries by ranking its performance across major countries. The benchmark combines coverage of broadband, which is the gateway to the internet and digital economy, and cloud computing, one of key enablers of digital applications services worldwide.

WG6- Customer Premises Network: In a rapidly evolving digital landscape marked by the rise of UHD video, Metaverse, online education, healthcare, and smart manufacturing, the demand for robust home and business broadband services has never been greater. To meet these demands, the Customer Premises Network (CPN) Working Group has been established.

WG7 - Artificial Intelligence: Experience the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it revolutionizes life and work, both locally and globally. Stay ahead of the curve and embrace the dynamic shifts in our economy and society with confidence. Discover how AI is shaping the future today.

In the future, WBBA will deepen international cooperation and continuously enhance its global influence, with the vision of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and helping to bridge the digital divide. It will provide guidance and advice to members on cloud and network industry policies, industries, investment, technology, and markets, and drive global cloud and network enterprises to achieve high-quality development. The association will continue to establish global partnerships and become an important bridge for international cloud and network industry cooperation.

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Martin Creaner
Director General of the World Broadband Association

Martin Creaner is one of the leading strategic thinkers in the global communications industry with a successful career as an executive with Motorola and British Telecom, as well as over a decade as President and CEO of the TM Forum.

Martin currently advises the boards of a number of companies in the communications and high tech industries, ranging from up-and-coming digital economy companies, to market leaders.

Martin has been named among the 25 Most Influential People in Telecom Software by Billing World and has twice been named as one of Global Telecoms Business’ Top 100. Martin holds a Master of Business Administration from Cranfield University, Cranfield School of Management; a Master of Science in Telecommunications from the University of East Anglia; and Bachelor’s degrees in Engineering and Physics from Dublin City University and the University College Dublin, respectively.

Martin is also a recognized thought-leader on digital transformation and the trends of the emerging digital economy. His most recent book “Transforming the Telco” explains the opportunities and challenges that digital transformation presents and outlines how the Telco might navigate this difficult process.

Previous books include “Delivering the Digital Economy”, which outlines the dynamics of the digital economy, and “Frameworx Distilled” & “NGOSS Distilled”, which provide a detailed guidebook to the standards that underpin the Telecom software industry.

Martin was appointed unanimously to the role of Director General by WBBA members.

Martin lives in Cork, Ireland.

Li Zhengmao
Doctor of Engineering, Professor, WBBA Board Chairman

Li Zhengmao, Doctor of Engineering, Professor. He was awarded the title of “Chinese Doctors with Outstanding Contribution” by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council & the former State Education Commission, and granted the China Youth Science and Technology Award by the China Association for Science and Technology, and the 2017 Distinguished Industry Leader Award by IEEE; he was inducted into the 2020 IPv6 Internet Hall of Fame and enjoyed special government allowances.

Li served as Vice-Chairman of China Institute of Communications, Vice President of Internet Society of China, Vice-Chairman of the Association of Communications Across the Taiwan Straits, Vice-Chairman of All-China Environment Federation, Board member of GSM Association (GSMA), Board Director of Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance, Executive Director of Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI), Vice President of China United Communications Corporation Limited, Vice President of China Mobile Communications Corporation Limited, and President of China Telecommunications Corporation Limited.