 Welcome to U.S. Forum 2019, where connectivity remains top of the agenda. To discuss it, I am joined by Sebastian Belagamba, his regional bureau director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Internet Society. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for having me. So connectivity, very important because nearly half the world remains unconnected. Why is that so? What are the challenges? There is several of them, but the most important thing is that first, we connected, the Internet has been deployed at a pace that no other technology has been deployed in the past. So we have a record on that. I mean, we've done a really good job, but for these people that are not yet connected, things are getting worse every day because first they're not reaping the benefits of being online, which are evident to all of us that are connected, but also because the world is moving online, their own situation vis-à-vis the world is getting worse, so we need to hurry up in connecting them because they need the benefits, but also they need to remain part of the society as we know it. There's a real sense of urgency at the moment to connect these people, isn't there? Completely, completely, because as I said, the Internet brings benefits to the people. It's not the technology that we're deploying, we're deploying a technology for the benefit of people. People are better off when connected because of productivity, because they communicate with people. I mean, there's a lot of advantages of being connected. They're evidently known by everyone, but if we lose time, we are going to deprive these people of all the benefits of being connected. So we need to move fast and we need to move together. The important thing here is to collaborate in order to address this situation. Yes, I understand you participated in a panel. It was actually all about multi-stakeholder participation, so collaboration to bring more people online. So what were the main discussion points? What can we do? Okay, we have to set our minds in order to how to collaborate. I mean, there are many actors, many stakeholders that can contribute to this situation, but we have to make up our minds, what's our own role and how we can contribute and how we can accept the contribution from other people. It's not just one stakeholder that drives the matter. It's a multifaceted thing that needs a multi-stakeholder approach in order to be resolved. For instance, I mean, we need regulation that will allow people that lives, for instance, in rural areas to get connected to the Internet. We have connected 51% of the population of the world, but 51%, even though it was an exceptional pace and a record-setter pace, we connected the easiest part, the rich people that lives in urban centers. We need to work together on how we address the other 49% is a more complicated one, and we need policies in the more ample sense of the world that help us address that. For instance, one thing that we're working with a lot is what we call community networks. It's one of the many solutions that we have in order to address this situation. Community networks are networks that are created and run by their own communities, which is an excellent solution for rural areas, for instance, where there is no coverage at all today. And for doing that, you need the community itself to work on that. You need the private sector to give them connectivity that is not being covered today. You need policies, public policies in place in order for them to thrive. So it's a multifaceted approach that is needed in order to connect these people. And do you feel that all the stakeholders are all striving to collaborate more? I mean, do you think that everyone is willing to participate and join in the effort? Yes, absolutely. And every day is getting better in that sense. I mean, I think we started in silos, and now the collaboration is taking place. And I'm very grateful for all the participants here that make this easier and happening. And there is a saying of our CEO that says no one internets alone. I mean, the concept of the internet implies collaboration because it's internet. And I think that concept is getting more and more every day in our daily work. Okay. Sebastian Bellagombe of the Internet Society, thank you very much. Thank you.