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World Broadband Association News

Find out the latest telecommunications news about the WBBA including news articles, news releases, broadband webinars, the WBBA Member Blog and Member Spotlight Series, plus links to our social media channels and WBBA press office contact details.
January 5, 2026
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Nanjing University Join the WBBA
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December 23, 2025
End of year message: Thank You to our World Broadband Association Members around the world for making 2025 such a success!
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December 10, 2025
China Telecom’s Cloud-Network Integration Pilot Platform Accelerates Government and Enterprise Digital Transformation
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November 17, 2025
New Member Announcement
WBBA Welcomes UTStarcom as New Member to Strengthen Global Efforts in Bridging the Digital Divide
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November 4, 2025
Global Fibre Day
Recognising global World Fibre Day we are delighted to share this insightful article
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October 22, 2025
WBBA sets out guidance and benchmarks for AI, broadband and fibre prosperity at BDC 2025
Global broadband innovations and excellence recognized at the Broadband Excellence Awards
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October 22, 2025
Global broadband innovations and excellence recognized at the Broadband Excellence Awards
Global broadband innovations and excellence recognized at the Broadband Excellence Awards
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September 18, 2025
New Member Announcement
WBBA Welcomes EFTS Group as New Member to Strengthen Global Efforts in Bridging the Digital Divide
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June 23, 2025
WBBA Broadband Development Congress Shanghai 2025 | Smarter Infrastructure: Converging AI and Broadband
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May 19, 2025
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, 17 May 2025
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May 14, 2025
WBBA's Inaugural Advisory Committee Held, 8th May 2025
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March 28, 2025
Insights and emerging trends from a week in Barcelona
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March 12, 2025
Focusing on Growth and Innovation: Key take-aways from WBBA’s General Assembly & Board Meeting in Barcelona
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March 5, 2025
AI and Net5.5G pivotal to achieving next-generation broadband networks says WBBA
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January 14, 2025
About Collaboration and Future: WBBA Member Forum (China) was held in Beijing
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December 18, 2024
2024 Broadband Development Congress whitepaper launch highlights AI’s role in sustainable fixed networks
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December 13, 2024
Member Success Specialist
The Member Success Specialist is a pivotal role dedicated to ensuring WBBA members achieve maximum value from their membership. By fostering strong relationships and prioritising member satisfaction, this role supports revenue retention and enhances the member experience through a blend of customer-centric innovation and proactive engagement strategies.
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December 13, 2024
Community Manager, WBBA
The World Broadband Association (WBBA) is seeking a proactive and results-oriented Community Manager to lead its member engagement initiatives. This role will focus on driving participation, delivering member value, and implementing impactful strategies that support WBBA's vision of becoming the leading global broadband community.
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December 6, 2024
China Telecom officially joins IDSA and jointly establishes the "International Carrier Data Space Working Group" with WBBA
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November 26, 2024
Zhengmao, Chairman of WBBA: Cloud-Network Broadband Innovation Drives the Development of an Open and Secure Next-Generation Internet
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Key Messages
Key Messages
Recommendations
Recommendations
The Importance of Greater Broadband Investment​
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Key Messages

Advanced cloud technology together with superior end-to-end connectivity can enable a wider and more sophisticated range of applications that can in turn drive greater innovation, efficiency, and wealth.
Both enterprises and broader industry ecosystems are actively looking at broadband’s role in enabling their digital transformation. Most respondents to the WBBA’s Thought Leadership Enterprise Survey stated that they need faster and more reliable internet to run their business applications.
Certainly, in the short to medium term, xDSL, cable modem, fixed-wireless access (FWA), and satellite are all expected to have a role in the delivery of broadband services. However, full-fiber access will always deliver the optimum experience and remains the most sustainable and cost-efficient option.
There is a danger therefore for governments to base their cost-benefit analysis on a national economic view. However, such analysis will miss all the social benefits, as well as the more local economic benefits, that advanced broadband networks can bring. Governments must take all benefits into account, including more localized ones, when creating national broadband policies.
However, future applications will not only need ultra-high-speed services but also ultra-low latency and jitter, with high levels of reliability and consistency if they are to function properly. Countries with networks that are not capable of meeting such criteria will be left behind as the world moves to the next phase of internet applications such as the “metaverse.”
Fiber networks are significantly more environmentally friendly than equivalent copper-based networks, and can help support other green initiatives such as greater working from home, the use of advanced videoconferencing, etc. Fiber-based networks also require less maintenance due to there being less active equipment in the field, and can therefore reduce operators’ operational costs.
With rollout of new access technologies like 5G and Fiber, IPv6 reached more than 30% penetration worldwide (APNIC) and is rapidly growing. IPv6 Enhanced technologies, including segment routing over IPv6, per flow monitoring and AI, enable a multitude of objects and people to be flexibly connected to the proper services, granting end-to-end quality of experience.
Based on the responses from the WBBA Thought Leadership Survey, respondents believed, on average, this coverage could be expanded to approximately 70% through private investment. It is clear that government support will be needed to get to 100%.
However, a lack of data on the available infrastructure, access to key infrastructure such as ducts and in-building networks, and a lack of understanding both internally and externally are also key barriers to further investment.
Respondents to the WBBA survey stated that a reduction in regulatory barriers, greater flexibility in partnership arrangements, copper switch-off regulations, and setting out minimum service standards for network installations, would all take priority over financial support.

Recommendations

All countries must look to maximize the potential of broadband. This means creating long-term national broadband plans that evolve around three basic phases of broadband adoption:

  • Phase 1: Fast deployment of basic connectivity (most likely focusing on wireless technologies)
  • Phase 2: Continued rollout of fixed-broadband access to 100% of premises
  • Phase 3: Continued investment in advanced broadband technologies to move to gigabit societies and beyond.

In order to help facilitate this evolution to advanced broadband networks, government organizations and regulators must consider:

  • Implementing regulatory flexibility, including the removal of outdated or non-essential regulation
  • Introducing flexibility in partnership arrangements; for example, allowing agreements between players, such as co-financing, collaborative models, public-private partnerships, etc.
  • Facilitating deployment through municipality approvals, using existing resources (government buildings, streetlights, ducts, etc.) and sharing infrastructure and facilities, including in-building networks. This should also include other types of utility infrastructure where possible
  • Providing financial assistance through investment support, incentives, and subsidies; e.g., universal service funds
  • Improving access to telecom facilities and physical infrastructure; improving procedures for rights of way and accessing public infrastructure, as well as broadband mapping.
Making the Recommendations a Reality

Operators, enterprises, vendors, regulators, and policy-makers should seek to create a collective voice, to evangelize, advocate, co-create, and partner in the drive toward the provision of ultra-broadband networks and services for all. Organizations such as the WBBA can help by influencing key stakeholders through discussion, education, and promotion. Specifically, the WBBA should aim to:

  • Set out the importance of greater broadband investment, not just for the good of the service provider but for countries as a whole
  • Promote regulatory, legislative, public relations agendas that help advance the interests of members through WBBA publications and live events, highlighting best-practice business models from around the world to remove any “lack of understanding at boardroom level”
  • Influence through research, discussion, and promotion of new potential marketing or naming concepts for fixed broadband to ease mass-market understanding of the different generations of broadband access – hiding technical jargon such as “Mbps,” “latency,” and “jitter” from the customer
  • Through thought leadership, media activity, and live events, continue to make the case for what governments need to recognize and do to close the industry innovation, socioeconomic, and environmental benefit gaps through infrastructure investment
  • Explore through new research the challenges and opportunities arising from changes in the industry structure, addressing its impact on the business and the standardization landscape. This includes aspects of fiber wholesale, the move toward horizontal industry structure with separation of infrastructure and services, and the change of customer relationship to digital
  • Work with stakeholder partners to understand and promote the potential of future applications that will bring new benefits to broadband customers and wider society
  • Develop in-depth thought-leadership research on the new revenue opportunities advanced networks can provide to service providers in both the consumer and enterprise markets
  • Develop and highlight best-practice investment models that show the true return on investment of a full-fiber rollout to both private companies and government organizations
  • Champion the needs of its members to highlight barriers to future investment, creating a platform to enable open discussion between different types of stakeholder to encourage greater cooperation and new partnerships.