The Broadband Commission was set up by the ITU and UNESCO in recognition of the importance of broadband.  As they put it:

Affordable broadband connectivity, services and applications are essential to modern society, offering widely recognized social and economic benefits.

The Commission has just published its Annual Report 2013, which is a much more interesting read than the average corporate annual report.  Its focus is very much on the developing world rather than Ireland, but for anyone with a professional interest in broadband, it is an interesting read.  It contains some interesting statistics –

Broadband market share by technology, Q1 2013. Source: The Broadband Commission

– but it goes further:

• It sets out the state of broadband across the world.
• It iterates the benefits of broadband to human development and specifically to the UN’s Millennium Goals.
• It describes how governments are being pushed to commit to broadband development plans.
• Finally, it tackles questions around how to make broadband available to all.

A useful document – not least for reminding us in Ireland of how lucky we are to live in the first world.