Heeding a call from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to extend Internet connectivity to underserved populations around the world, the United Nations ICT Task Force and the Wireless Internet Institute (W2i) jointly announced on March 24th, 2004 a series of programs to accelerate the adoption of wireless Internet in support of universal connectivity, the Millennium Development Goals, and the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on the Information Society.

In his bold challenge to Silicon Valley in 2002, the Secretary-General said: “We need to think of ways to bring wireless-fidelity applications to the developing   world so as to make use of unlicensed radio spectrum to deliver cheap and fast Internet access.”

To respond to this challenge, the UN ICT Task Force and W2i have put together “Wireless Internet for Underserved Populations and Local Communities”, a program designed to begin to meet one of the leading development challenges of our time – universal connectivity — by involving all key stakeholders, from government and civil society to the private sector and field practitioners. 
Early underwriters of the program include global technology partners IBM and Intel. More than 15 conferences, seminars, and interactive workshops are currently in the planning stages for Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East to help policy makers, regulators, development experts, field practitioners, technology and service providers, and user organizations explore how to best leverage broadband wireless Internet technologies in their countries, communities, and underserved areas.

Consequently, four series have been outlined to systematically complete the program agenda in time for the second WSIS summit in Tunis in 2005. They include:

•   National Regulator Capacity-Building Series

•   Global Wireless Internet and Local Authorities Series

•   Wireless Internet and the Arab-World Series

•   Wireless Internet and the African Continent Series

Overseen by a multinational, multidisciplinary advisory board, the four series will confront issues surrounding needs and applications identification, policy and regulatory framework development, backbone availability, demand aggregation, and infrastructure
funding. Proceedings will be captured and published in the form of Web-based resources, books, reports and white papers, constituting the most comprehensive knowledge base available to all ICT-for-development stakeholders. Steering committees will guide the development of each, setting goals and objectives and conclusions to be presented at WSIS in Tunis in November 2005.