 Welcome to the World Radio Communication Conference WRC 23 here in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where I got the great pleasure of being joined this morning in the studio. I'm Bernadette Lewis who's the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization, the CTO. Bernadette, welcome to the studio. Thank you very much. My pleasure to be here. It's great to see you again. Now I wanted to start off by asking you a little bit about the WRC. Why is WRC an important event for the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization? Well, many of our members have remote isolated rural communities that have not been served for any number of reasons and wireless communications are essential. I believe in many respects they might be the only option for serving these communities. So the use of spectrum and the management of spectrum, all of those things are so vital for determining the future of those communities where people have no connectivity. So the WRC is a marvelous forum. I really am very happy at the work that happens here. And when you look at the history, I think we have the 39th WRC, the agreements, the collaboration, the cooperation that comes out of this community of people with the interested spectrum, it's going to benefit all of humanity. And from the Commonwealth's point of view, we have so many millions, billions of people who haven't been served wireless communications, I believe, is the way to reach them. What are the major challenges in terms of connectivity for the members of the Commonwealth? I think one of the main challenges is affordability, yes. And I really think that is a concern of ours. Earlier this year we had a forum that focused on affordable universal broadband connectivity. And the marvellous thing about the technology is that it's evolving at a phenomenal rate. I have always been a believer in satellite technology, but you know the cost, the latency and all the other technical reasons why it was prohibitive and only typically used for mainly the emergency services. But now you have the evolution of leos and meos and high altitude platforms. It makes the possibilities for reaching affordably, you know, those communities. It makes it, it's within our reach. That's but it that way, yes. And in terms of the outcomes of this conference, what do you hope will be some of the outcomes that will really make a difference of the Commonwealth? Right, so I don't want to speak in any specific terms, but I would want to see the evolution of the technology not being impeded, yes. But I would also want to see benefits accruing to the people who have the legacy equipment and so on and so forth. It calls for a certain amount of what negotiation collaboration again, that those words, so that the people who need to move forward are able to, because the technology is going to march ahead, there are new things that are going to revolutionise lives and we don't want our members of the Commonwealth being stuck in the 20th century, yes. So those are the things we really want to see a win-win for technology, but also for the citizens of the world. Now is there a message that you'd like to impart to the delegates here, but also to our wider audience listening and viewing this across the world? The rising tide, it will lift all of the boats, yes, and we have to work in cooperation, in collaboration, bearing in mind and bringing those along who are behind, you know, I think it's very important. I know from a cooperation point, the focus is maybe profits and so on and so forth, but if everybody comes along, if you bring everybody along, the possibilities are even better. So that is mine, yes, to think, to be in solidarity, to work with those people who are behind. Oh, Bernadette, thank you so much for joining me in the studio today and taking the time to be here and we look forward to catching up with you again very soon, I'm sure. Great, thank you. Thanks very much indeed. And if you've enjoyed this interview, which I'm sure you will have, then please check out our other interviews on our YouTube channel, as well as podcasts on our podcast channels on SoundCloud, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast from. And for further information, why not visit our website at www.itu.inc. Thanks for tuning in.