[WSIS CS-Plenary] declaration regarding the wireless access in WSIS from the
Civil Society Bureau
Veni Markovski
veni at veni.com
Mon Dec 8 08:43:17 GMT 2003
Pls, see below the text we've sent yesterday to the organizers. I hope to
be able to reach to the Swiss government today and deliver it personally.
In the meantime, I personally will switch from using Swisscom to using
Orange as mobile service.
regards,
veni
The Civil Society Bureau to the WSIS strongly protests that there is a
change in the established practices for ensruing wireless Internet access
have been chaned for the actual WSIS. Until now participants in the WSIS
were connected online during the PrepCom meetings at no price, while - to
our astonishment - we noted that for the WSIS itself the wireless access
will be paid, and at the very high business rate of CHF 0.90 / minute.
Many of our members are coming from developing countries where one hour of
such usage is equal to more than a monthly salary! That's a bad example of
what the digital divide may be described as.
While we are thankful for the existence of an Free and Open Source Software
(FOSS) cybercafe, we must state that many of the participants in the WSIS
bring their own notebooks, equipped with wireless Internet access cards,
and they rely on the accessible communications in order to fulfil their
duties.
Wireless access was not available during the resumed PrepCom (Dec. 5-6),
but it is of vital importance to have it at acceptable conditions during
the whole WSIS, as part of the effort to facilitate in the best possible
way the work of the Civil Society, the private sector and the governments.
Lack of wireless Internet access means that a huge portion of
representatives of the CS is being driven away from the process, because it
will radically diminish their capacity to interact with each other and
contribute with their knowledge to the whole WSIS process.
We urge the local hosts to find a way to ensure that there will be free of
charge wireless Internet access during the whole WSIS in Geneva,
re-establishing the practices respected throughout the whole process of
PrepCom meetings - in Geneva, as well as Paris.
We use the opportunity to thank the government of Geneve and Switzerland
for their efforts to perform in the best possible way in the WSIS, and we
hope that this detail will be fixed as soon as possible in a way sutiable
for all parties.
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