Some shots from the ending session Governments and Global Single Market (SESSION 4)

Gabrielle Gauthey, Executive Vice President, Global Government & Public Affairs,  Alcatel-Lucent, France

The industry and governments face significant challenges. The explosion of mobile data traffic was not properly anticipated. Such a speed of change has never been experienced before. 90% of the communicational in the future will be video. Also, very disruptive changes are taking place in the value chain. End of the logic of voice and distance. Decoupling of traffic and revenue. Erosion of margins. Bandwidth intensive applications grow fast.

Net: Massive investment will be needed. Europe is already lagging behind. The question is: Who will pay?

Harry Van Dorenmalen, Chairman IBM Europe, The Netherlands:

We reached the age of a Smarter Planet. The world is now globally instrumented and interconnected. Intelligent devices can be used smartly. This is good news because due to high deficits everywhere, the funding of further R&D can only come from doing things smarter…

David Gross, Former U.S. Ambassador, Coordinator for International Communications & Information Policy at the US Department of State:

Government officials stated during the 6^th Internet Governance Forum (2011 September, Nairobi) that 90% of the new phone sold in Kenya are smartphones…

Few points of talk. ICT is no longer just technologies. Internet, Social Media empowers people. ICT will be a major tool assuring sustainability. Remove barriers for Single digital market – for digital world is what Digital Agenda is working on. Nevertheless, there is still much work to do. All stake holders have to take their responsibility for ICT Future because ICT is the area of Future and there is no other way.

Sylviane Toporkoff, President of the Global Forum welcomed participants and opened the forum. She introduced Frank Leyman, Head of International Relations at the Department of the Belgian Federal Administration who put in perspective the objective of the forum.