So, at last, the global establishment has decided - and the truth is out.

1. Broadband access provision is a utility – just like water and electricity.

2. The policy drivers for digital access infrastructure investment (and the benefits) have really very little to do with the telecoms sector.

Who says?

The UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development under the guidance of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).  Their report was presented and accepted by the UN Commission last week as the key component to enable progress on all of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

Nick Clegg (UK Deputy Prime Minister) was on hand at the subsequent MDG meeting to congratulate and support the UN’s work. ‘...we do not see the Millennium Development Goals just as optimistic targets for far away lands…….. they are key to lasting safety and future prosperity for the people of the United Kingdom, and of course, for people right across the globe.’

Whether the Deputy PM’s advisors had provided a full brief on the detail of the Broadband Commission’s report is perhaps open to doubt.  At high altitude the direction of travel takes precedence over the future challenge of landing safely.  Anyway, it would not have been an appropriate occasion to exercise domestic politics or to question the collected wisdom of the prestigious assembly of Commissioners.

The report summary makes clear that digital development is essential in the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals, none of which are specifically linked to the Telecoms sector – but the report goes further in articulating a ‘trans-sectoral’ approach to the justification of infrastructure investment.

Urging top-level political leadership the report says:

‘Most important of all, these efforts must be coordinated across all sectors of industry, administration and the economy. Developing isolated projects or piecemeal, duplicated networks, is not only inefficient; it also delays provision of infrastructure that is becoming as crucial in the modern world as roads or electricity supplies.’

'When a trans-sectoral approach is taken — that shares infrastructure and builds synergies among the applications that use it — investments can yield major multiplier effects that benefit healthcare, education, energy efficiency, environmental protection, public safety, civic participation and economic growth. Such a trans-sectoral approach should lead to the development of smart interconnected and sustainable communities, homes and businesses.'

The summary report is backed up by a more-detailed report '2010 Leadership Imperative' that articulates not only the infrastructural options but goes into greater detail across many sector policy areas.  This more-detailed exposition is, in truth, a ‘work in progress’ with its own website devoted to garnering an even wider global input of ideas for action and diverse perspectives.

The Commissioners’ report does not, of course, attempt to be prescriptive.  The digital infrastructure landscape (and its regulation) varies widely across (and within) many countries and the environment for enabling solutions for the delivery of vastly improved access is a matter for local policymakers.

The report does however weigh in on the side of coordinated national planning.  That is not a demand for a single solution or some top-down sanctification of particular providers or technology choices.  It is more directed towards setting and managing expectations, developing standards and creating the conditions in which enterprise and the public sector can pull together not only with greater efficiency but also with greater diversity and innovation attuned to local needs of citizens.

Whether the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister will find the time to study the report – or have the creative essence of its implications for the UK considered by those charged with delivering growth in the domestic economy and reducing public sector costs – is uncertain.  But the message from the UN is clear – digital development is key to all manner of economic and societal programmes and broadband access is an essential utility.

Maybe there’s hope in Nick Clegg’s recognition that ‘Development’ is not about ‘optimistic targets for far away lands’ but also ‘the key to lasting safety and future prosperity for the people of the United Kingdom.’  It may not be charity – more enlightened self-interest – but it most definitely should begin at home.

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Readers of this editorial also read ‘Searching for Economic Growth Hormones' and ‘Communicating Communications’.

Nick Clegg quotations are taken from his address to the UN general Assembly - 24th September 2010

This editorial was written for the UK's Communications Management Association (CMA) whose members, in aggregate, spend over £13bn per annum on communications goods and services.