Abu-Ghazaleh Chairs the First Wireless Internet Conference

24 Jun 2003
The First International Conference on Wireless Internet is to be held on 26.6.2003 at the UN headquarters in New York. Mr. Talal Abu- Ghazaleh, Vice Chairman of UN Information and Communication Technologies Task Force, will chair the Conference in which he will deliver the opening statement. He will, then, recite on behalf of the UN General Secretary, Mr. Kofi Anan, a speech directed to the Conference sponsored by Wireless Internet Institute (W2I) in cooperation with the United Nations.

The Wireless Internet known as WiFi means allowing the use of Internet without connecting the computer to the phone line, which helps the developing countries in bridging the digital divide that results from the absence of an affordable communication infrastructure.

This new technology is expected to represent a historic transition in the world of information and knowledge; a transition that would be similar or even greater than the mobile revolution in significance.

This technology will achieve the low cost electronic communication through the technologies of connecting the Internet with the media using the Arabic broadcast waves (Broadband) and others communication means.

The first to benefit from this communication revolution will be the people of developing countries living in poverty and rural areas, by providing them with low-cost and easy to access communication.

Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh will submit to the Conference a comprehensive global draft plan to direct this new knowledge revolution to serve the developing countries. This plan would have the objective of bridging the knowledge divide n the world through a partnership between the private sector, governments and the United Nations.