"Mobile cellular penetration is estimated to reach

"Mobile cellular penetration is estimated to reach almost 120% in Latin America and the Caribbean by end 2013."

Uruguay hosts regional preparatory meeting for 2014 ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference
Policy-makers and industry leaders in Americas push ICTs as catalyst for development
https://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_rel.../CM10.aspx

ITU Readies New 1Gbit/s Broadband Standard

G.fast Uses Existing Wires to Deliver Fibre Performance at Lower Costs

Geneva, 16 July 2013 – G.fast, a new ITU broadband standard, that promises up to 1 Gbit/s over existing copper telephone wires, is one step closer following a meeting of ITU-T Study Group 15 this week. G.fast is designed to deliver superfast downloads up to a distance of 250 meters, thereby eliminating the expense of installing fibre between the distribution point and people’s homes.

The Geneva meeting saw first stage approval of ITU standard, Recommendation ITU-T G.9700, that specifies methods to minimize the risk of G.fast equipment interfering with broadcast services such as FM radio, paving the way for G.fast to be approved in early 2014.

G.fast is expected to be deployed by service providers wanting to provide fibre to the home (FTTH) like services, which will enable flexible upstream and downstream speeds to support bandwidth-intensive applications such as streaming Ultra-HDTV movies, uploading high-resolution video and photo libraries to cloud-based storage, and communicating via HD video.
http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_rele...hc55ZDD9jo

ITU-T H.265 / ISO/IEC 23008-2 HEVC will provide a flexible, reliable and robust solution, future-proofed to support the next decade of video. The new standard is designed to take account of advancing screen resolutions and is expected to be phased in as high-end products and services outgrow the limits of current network and display technology.

Companies including ATEME, Broadcom, Cyberlink, Ericsson, Fraunhofer HHI, Mitsubishi, NHK, NTT DOCOMO and Qualcomm have already showcased implementations of HEVC. The new standard  includes a ‘Main’ profile that supports 8-bit 4:2:0 video, a ‘Main 10’ profile with 10-bit support, and a ‘Main Still Picture’ profile for still image coding that employs the same coding tools as a video ‘intra’ picture.

The ITU/ISO/IEC Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) (formerly JVT) will continue work on a range of extensions to HEVC, including support for 12-bit video as well as 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma formats. Another important element of this work will be the progression of HEVC towards scalable video coding. The three bodies will also work within the Joint Collaborative Team on 3D-Video (JCT-3V) on the extension of HEVC towards stereoscopic and 3D video coding.
http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_rele...hcyTZDD9jo

ITU unveils forward-looking debate agenda for ITU Telecom World 2013

Panel sessions willspan key areas including:
•Riding the Data Wave: Techniques for dealing with the global “Data storm”
•Telco and OTT: Implications for telcos, regulators and governments
•Convergence of Regulation: Rethinking regulation in a converged environment
•How can World Citizens Ensure their Privacy in a Digital World?: Roles for government, business and international organizations, rights of global citizens
•From Voice to Data to Cloud: Transitioning the Telco Business Model: New business models for a cloud-centric world
•Telecoms Innovation is Going Over the Edge ... is it Time to Pivot?: How the industry can redefine and re-engage to reach broader tele-consumer, tele-enterprise needs
http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_rele...hc4GZDD9jp
http://world2013.itu.int/event/programme/ .....worth a scan, my fav "The Internet of Everything based on IPV6" 

...........GM All, hope you have a good DUTV Day