[kictanet] East Africa Broadband Connectivity Workshop

[alice]

*East Africa** Broadband Connectivity Workshop*

The Global Digital Freedom Institute (GDFI), inveneo, and balancing act 
in cooperation with the United States’ Digital Freedom Initiative (DFI), 
are pleased to invite you to join colleagues from telecommunications 
ministries, the information and communications technology (ICT) 
industries and non-profit communities, to participate in a roundtable 
discussion about ways of accelerating deployment of high-speed broadband 
networks in Eastern Africa.

The discussion will take place on Thursday, May 10 at the Hotel des 
Mille Collines, in Kigali, Rwanda beginning at 8:00 am and ending at 
5:00pm. It will immediately follow a two day *East Africa Regional 
Broadband Workshop** **that** *the U.S. Digital Freedom Initiative, 
under the leadership of Ambassador David A. Gross, will be holding on 
May 8-9 with Telecommunications Ministers and private/academic sector 
leaders from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.


The ministerial-level DFI Workshop will examine potential models and 
produce a road map for expanding broadband connectivity in East Africa. 
The follow-up, roundtable discussion on May 10 will delve more deeply 
into the issues and further refine policy and infrastructure build-out 
options identified during the preceding two-day DFI workshop. These will 
include but not necessarily be limited to the following three tasks:

· Examining specific steps that ICT businesses and governments in East 
Africa could take to remove or relax impediments to broadband deployment.

· Discussing the feasibility of implementing the policy and 
infrastructure options developed during the two-day workshop and 
suggesting enhancements where necessary.

· Focusing on connecting universities in the region and building on the 
work that has already been accomplished.

We hope you will view this meeting as an opportunity to positively 
influence the deployment of broadband networks and applications 
throughout East Africa, and we very much hope that you will join us in 
this effort. *Please RSVP by May 1 by e-mail to gmccoy at gdfi.org 
<mailto:gmccoy at gdfi.org>. *