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Broadband networks are as vital to the world’s economic and social future as transport, water or power, according to the United Nations-backed Broadband Commission for Digital Development.

The group met recently in Geneva to discuss its vision for accelerating the development of broadband networks across the globe, and will present two reports to the UN in September.

The first will look at input from the commissioners at the event, and the second will analyse the challenges and opportunities in deploying broadband in all types of economies.

Unesco director general Irina Bokova added that, while ICT is helping to provide new opportunities for the creation, preservation, dissemination and use of information, more needs to be done to ensure that this is true across the board.

Read more at V3.

Universal McCann’s annual social media tracker, Wave 4, included South Africa for the first time in its 2009 research. Wave 4 puts the internet penetration in South Africa at 9.4 percent of adult population. The figure is somewhat lower than local estimates, which cite the internet penetration level at about 10 percent (about 5.3 million users out of the total population of about 50 million people).