Efforts to spread broadband throughout the world must manage a difficult balance between increased government involvement and encouraging investments in mobile, speakers said at the ITU's World Telecommunication Policy Forum in Lisbon. The financial crisis will prompt new institutions, revitalize communications and enable new business models and technologies, said Hamadoun Toure, the ITU's secretary-general. It will offer opportunities for whoever is quick and brave enough to seize them, he said. "Government has an essential role to play in promoting infrastructure" with the private sector, said Michael Copps, the FCC's acting chairman, citing historical efforts to build roads, transcontinental railroads, bring electricity to rural areas and provide basic telecom service. The message of the last eight years has been that a "minimal role of government, minimal planning, no stimulus" would get everything done, Copps said. "Well, that didn't really happen in our country," he said, referring to the U.S.'s ranking in broadband.
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