Huawei committed to supporting the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) help connect 120 million people in remote areas in more than 80 countries by 2025, as it signed up to the organisation’s Partner2Connect (P2C) digital coalition.
Huawei chairman Liang Hua (pictured) kicked off the company’s Connectivity+: Innovate for Impact forum by noting access to a stable network is “a basic requirement and right in the digital age”.
He added connectivity is more than a tool for convenient communications.
It will “help bring everyone into the digital world”, which “will drive further social and economic development”.
P2C is a multi-stakeholder alliance launched in 2021 by the ITU to foster universal connectivity.
ITU deputy secretary-general Malcolm Johnson noted Huawei’s pledge will directly address the internet usage gap, citing data from this year showing 95 per cent of the world’s population is within range of a mobile broadband network, but only one-in-three people could manage to go online.
The percentage of the population connected to the internet in low-income countries is 22 per cent compared with 91 per cent in high-income countries, he said.
In Cambodia, the ITU’s first P2C partner country, Johnson said Huawei will work with government departments to provide training for 10,000 ICT professionals over the next five years.
