What does the World Broadband Association do?

Almost without exception, every industry, sport and market has a global association or governing body, advocating for it and championing progress among its membership.

Snooker has the WPBSA. Shops have the Global Retail Alliance. And the broadband industry has the World Broadband Association.

Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of this independent Swiss-based organisation. It has a low profile in the UK – among consumers, at least.

Among ISPs, however, the World Broadband Association (WBBA for short) is a significant entity.

This industry-led association aims to establish international best practice regarding internet access over the coming years, bringing stakeholders together to achieve global broadband equality.

Around the World

With founding members including Nokia, Huawei and Ookla, the World Broadband Association was created primarily to tackle seven industry-wide challenges.

These include the creation of a future-proof global network while developing eco-friendly solutions to infrastructure creation, as well as trying to standardise domestic regulations.

The WBBA is particularly concerned with addressing broadband inequality within and between nations.

It runs a number of working groups, covering issues as diverse as network technology, AI and environmental sustainability.

The Global Development Index group champion broadband and cloud development, identifying best practice before extolling these insights to legislators, investors and ISPs alike.

Last month, the Association held its first Broadband Excellence Awards in Paris, handing out gongs for activities such as network infrastructure achievements.

Why is this necessary?

Residents in the UK increasingly take high-speed internet access for granted, yet an estimated three billion people have no broadband connections at all.

In many developing countries, mobile networks provide the only routes online, with minimal ground-based infrastructure outside big cities.

Even in countries where broadband infrastructure is well-established, connection speeds can be pitiful compared to the UK.

As we recently reported, 35 countries are unable to achieve average download speeds of 10Mbps or above – widely viewed as the minimum threshold for broadband.

Without a rapid connection, small businesses can’t operate, ecommerce infrastructure won’t flourish, and consumers can’t rely on services like smart home tech or VoIP services.

That’s before we get to bandwidth-consuming services like UHD video, the metaverse, online healthcare or smart manufacturing.

The various WBBA groups publish white papers which set internationally agreed standards, making it easier for manufacturers and infrastructure providers to deliver consistent outcomes.

It can cost as much as €100,000 to be a full member of the WBBA each year, though your firm would need annual revenues exceeding €10 billion to incur this fee.

Where will the broadband industry go next?

While some global organisations exist to implement rules and regulations, bodies like the WBBA are focused on best practice and achieving international harmonisation.

It helps to have challenges to overcome, and these are legion even within the UK.

From Scotland’s struggling R100 broadband scheme to the fragility of subsea cables, there are numerous obstacles in the way of rapid and reliable internet access.

One of the awards at the inaugural WBBA awards last month was the snappily titled Network Innovation Excellence Towards Realisation of Future Networks and Services trophy.

We won’t get bogged down in technical descriptions of some of the technologies this covered, such as deterministic networks, because the focus on improving infrastructure is obvious.

If there are breakthroughs in connectivity, data distribution or hardware design in the coming years, they may well have been inspired by the WBBA, its members and its committees.