Food. Nourishment. Housing. Healthcare. Broadband? Randall Lane, of Forbes, recently sat down with Dr. Hamadoun Touré, the head of the International Telecommunication Union. For five minutes, the two men discussed the importance of broadband:

• important to put the right on every national agenda
• not meeting the 2015 Millenium Development Goals is not a question
• won’t be able to meet MDGs without universal broadband (ie. government services)
• government/private/consumer need to be at the same level (are complementary)
• recent summit in Geneva brought delegates from nations together
• Arab Spring: communication is a powerful tool in the hands of the people.  it is too late to have governments take away this right – there are too many mobile phones.

Of course, providing the option of broadband to every citizen by 2015 is unlikely. Such a monumental effort requires unprecedented levels of coordination among investors, governments, corporations, and consumers. Providing broadband capacity is one thing, but last-mile connectivity at reasonable rates is another. Perhaps 2025 would be a more realistic goal than 2015 to actually fulfill this need.

Read more at Forbes.