Summary

  • CEPT member states propose naming two different digital divides in ITU Resolution 139: places without adequate infrastructure, and people who remain offline where infrastructure exists.
  • The draft would make partnerships on the second problem a priority for the Telecommunication Development Bureau, with affordability, devices, skills, accessibility and local content in the brief.

A mast can cover a town and still lose the argument with a handset price. The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) addendum 25 puts that awkward fact into a proposed rewrite of ITU Resolution 139. In its official conference record, the draft separates a coverage gap—areas without adequate network infrastructure—from a usage gap—people in covered areas who do not use it. The proposed duty is specific: the Development Bureau director would establish partnerships and intensify cooperation to tackle usage barriers as a priority.

The problem was visible before the new label. The 2022 Resolution 139 already mentioned low broadband utilization, affordability and digital literacy. It asked ITU to measure the digital divide, share best practices and help members with networks and skills. CEPT is changing the centre of gravity in the operating instructions. Its text gives non-use a name, assigns the development bureau a priority partnership task and calls for support on device and service costs, accessibility, relevant local content, skills, regulatory capacity and safer digital environments. Member States would also be encouraged to consider how users make adoption decisions.

The ITU’s own 2025 figures sharpen the tension: mobile broadband reaches more than 96% of the world’s population, while about 2.2 billion people remain offline. Those two published indicators describe different things; together they make another tower an incomplete answer to every offline household. The CEPT draft says the vast majority of offline people are already in covered areas and lists device prices, service prices, skills, relevant content, safety and security as demand-side obstacles.

The proposed change reaches the part of ITU that works with governments. Under the 2022 text, the Development Bureau helped with rural infrastructure, digital skills and best-practice repositories. Under the new wording it would have a dedicated instruction to build partnerships on the usage gap and help members remove adoption barriers. The resolution still invites consultations with the people meant to benefit from infrastructure programmes. That becomes more valuable when the question shifts from “Where is the signal?” to “Why is the phone still dark?” PP-26 must decide whether to adopt the wording.

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