The world gets a national broadband plan

The United Nation's International Telecommunications Union has released a broadband plan for the world.

"In this brave new world of 'digital opportunity', we believe the burning issue is what price will be paid by those who fail to make the global, regional, national and local choices for broadband inclusion for all—choices which must be made sooner rather than later," the "Outcomes" section of ITU's world Broadband Report warns.

ITU estimates that there are now over 1.8 billion Internet users and over five billion mobile device subscribers, most located in the developing world. All governments should build upon this to extend broadband to half the world's population by 2015, the organization says (the current human population of the globe is getting close to 7 billion folks, by the way). In an accompanying press statement, the survey asks global leaders to make broadband access a "basic civil right." "Broadband is the next tipping point, the next truly transformational technology," declares ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. "It can generate jobs, drive growth and productivity, and underpin long-term economic competitiveness. It is also the most powerful tool we have at our disposal in our race to meet the Millennium Development Goals, which are now just five years away."