ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré is urging quick deployment of IMT-Advanced-compliant mobile...
ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré is urging quick deployment of IMT-Advanced-compliant mobile broadband networks and encouraging governments to get rid of burdensome taxes on information and communications technology equipment and services that could hinder mobile growth, the ITU said Friday.…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
“Operators who move fast to deploy IMT-Advanced technologies, and who price their services competitively, will reap the full benefit of the next wave of explosive growth,” Touré said. “Governments who have committed to following best-practice ICT regulation are now reducing or even eliminating some sector-specific taxes. ITU would like to see all governments follow their lead.” ITU’s Radiocommunication Assembly in January endorsed LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced as the basis for IMT-Advanced next generation high-speed cellular broadband. They “both qualified as IMT-Advanced-compliant, capable of supporting speeds of 1 Gbps while stationary and 100 Mbps while in motion,” the union said. Touré will outline his desire for timely mobile broadband rollout and a more balanced approach to ICT taxation at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona in March, the ITU said.