THE telecommunications forum holding in Cairo, Egypt this week, organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) might bring into sharper focus the suspicion between the ITU and the US in the drive to bridge the digital divide in Africa.

They are both positioning themselves for a leadership role in the global effort to bring ICT closer to the people of Africa.

World support for Africa getting its people connected to the Information Society is a key theme at the telecoms forum dubbed "Advantage Africa"

Nigeria is expected to deliver a powerful address at the concluding part of the Forum on Thursday on Digital Solidarity in recognition of the need for global support for ICT development in the continent as muted by Senegal at the WSIS.

Unfortunately, the United States of America a key player in the global effort for support for Africa's ICT drive is conspicuously absent from the summit.

The high level event is convened by the ITU, a UN agency, follows the agency's successful roll at the high-profile World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva last December.

Before now, ITU chief, Yoshio Utsumi had made it clear that his group will want credit for the Cairo occasion. He had even warned his organisation that other international groups are "aggressively positioning themselves" to compete with ITU for leadership in promoting the spread of Information Society technology around the world.

While not spelling out who he meant, it is likely that he had in mind the US-supported ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, as well as rival UN agencies like UNESCO and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Utsumi said that "if ITU is to remain the key international player in bridging the digital divide, as we must, it is crucial that we assume a leadership role in convincing other international organizations to work with us in implementing the WSIS Digital Solidarity Agenda."

The ITU chief's reference is to the decision at the Geneva summit to study models for financing digital development, and report back to the second phase of WSIS in Tunis at the end of 2005.

Accordingly, the Cairo meeting -- the first big ITU show since Geneva -- is part the international politics of "digital solidarity". Countries like Egypt and Nigeria, and companies like Alcatel, are using the theme to beat their own drums.

The concluding Forum session on Thursday which explicitly covers "Digital Solidarity" is billed to bring together the hosts of the Geneva WSIS -- i.e. the Swiss government, along with Senegal which first proposed a "Digital Solidarity Fund", and Tunisia who will host the final summit.

The session is expected to provide the perfect opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the first phase of WSIS and to plan for a successful implementation of the second phase."

The Thursday session also includes speeches by Nigerian ministers and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

But noticeably absent are representatives of richer countries whose support would be needed if the ITU is to be able to deliver meaningful digital solidarity and secure its status as harbinger of a globally inclusive information society.

The challenge for the developed world and the ITU is to bring ICT services to the more than 800 million inhabitants of the African continent.

Telecom connections across the continent are vital for people talking to each other, but real participation in the Information Society means they also need access to follow-on services such as Internet email and the worldwideweb -- and to high-quality access at that.

The ITU says that though the number of Internet users in Africa rose by almost a third between 2002 and 2003, the bigger picture is that this means there is now just one person in 50 on the continent who is "wired".

The focus of the Cairo conference will be on growing basic telephone services further, whether through cellular and wireless systems or through cables and copper wires. But the ITU is also reminding delegates that Africa faces an even bigger challenge -- the need for fast-speed and "always-on" connections to the Internet.

Known as "broadband", this rich connection capacity is needed, says the ITU, for activities like tele-medicine. In this scenario, doctors in different geographical areas, for example, can to work together in real-time through an inexpensive videoconference discussion of a patient"s x-rays.

Around the world, also studies show that when people have access to affordable broadband, they use the Internet a whole lot more -- because waiting time is cut, and they can also access audiovisual content without problems.

According to the ITU, Africa has very little broadband, and what does exist is mainly limited to the relatively few places where there are already fixed lines. The result is that citizens of Luxembourg (450 000 people) have more broadband bandwidth available to them, than the 820 million people in Africa put together.

Because of this, there is interest in Cairo in wireless methods of spreading broadband across the continent. The ITU for one believes that because of the limited fixed line infrastructure, "Africa"s broadband will be driven by alternative access methods" -- and in particular, wireless.

It suggests that wireless broadband services in Africa can and should be allowed to kill several birds with one stone -- allow for voice, data and internet services. This contrasts with much of the continent where some companies are allowed to do voice calls only, while others may offer only Internet and are banned from providing voice.

The technology treated by the ITU as the most promising is WiMax, which can carry 70 megabits per second over a radius of 50 km. Satellite services could play a role in linking WiMax points together and into the broader Internet, although they are not a major point of discussion in Cairo.

WiMax Internet access does not necessarily mean mobile use -- in the way that a cellphone user can keep a call moving from cell to cell. But there are technologies, known as 2.5 generation, which do allow for a degree of Internet connection, even if not quite at the full broadband level.