 From the understanding of the next generation network, overall framework, and the architecture, we understand that there are various organizations which are playing a very important role in the development, evolution, and deployment of the next generation network technology. International Telecommunication Union, being the largest telecommunication organization based in Europe, is responsible for overall seeing the implementation of the NGN across various countries. In this module, we shall first understand what is the scope of ITU, what are different departments of ITU, and then we'd appreciate the development and deployment efforts which have been undertaken with regards to the broadband communication. For that, we'll first have to understand what is broadband in terms of data rate and performance. International Telecommunication Union is basically an agreement chartered under the United Nations to work for the betterment of humanity by taking care of the telecommunication development-related aspects. It can be categorized into three main parts. The first one is the ITUT that specifically takes care of the telecommunication aspects. Then we have ITUR, R being for radio communication, and D for development. Let's quickly go through the last two because the first one needs some dedicated description. The ITUR is related to the radio communication. It means it covers both fixed and mobile broadband. Before broadband, ITU was responsible for dial-up and low data rate across the dial-up networks over 56 kilobits per second and 64 kilobits per second dial-up and sometimes leased lines. After the introduction of the ISDN, again for various integrated services like voice, data, and internet, the ISDN was introduced. Again, in ISDN, the data rate was limited, but ITU was responsible for overseeing it. With the emergence of wireless technologies, for instance, in fixed broadband, we have the Wi-Max, we have the Wi-Fi. For these two IEEE standards i.e. IEEE 802.11 for Wi-Fi and 802.16 for Wi-Max, ITU started the standardization effort. The primary scope is the assignment of the frequency spectrum that takes care of the carrier assignment across various regions of the world. ITUR makes recommendations which are based on the frequency assignment in a certain country. For example, when the frequency in parts' plain old telephone systems was restricted to 4 kHz, it was only restricted to voice over the plain old telephone systems. However, with the emergence of the fixed broadband both in wired and wireless, certain frequency assignments were required. Then ITUR was put into practice. The scope of ITUR is not only responsible for the broadband both in fixed and wireless and within wireless in mobile and fixed wireless, but it is also related to the evolution of the 3GPP standard. The 3GPP standard, known as the IMA, is responsible for frequency assignment in the 800-900 MHz and 1800-1900 MHz spectrum. For that, the ITUT recommends different regional frequency assignments. Then we have the ITU for development. ITU for development is basically meant to promote the penetration of broadband across different countries by promoting technology deployment, by inviting vendors and operators from all over the world. For that, ITUD organizes different workshops and conferences. For instance, regarding the broadband policy of Pakistan and regarding the telecom policy of Pakistan, certain recommendations are adopted from the ITU Broadband Consortium. The ITU Broadband Consortium as in ITUD makes recommendations for implementing certain sustainable development goals, SDGs, also known as the Millennium Development Goals, which include the humanity-related aspects such as poverty alleviation, gender equality, clean water, access to the digital information to all the strata of the society. It means that ITUD helps the governments for the deployment of technology with a focus on equality and fairness with regards to the technology. Now, the concept of broadband is basically nothing but an enhancement of data rate. It means before, in earlier times, once the dial-up modems were used in the V.90 modem standard, then 56 kbps and as in ISDN, 64 kbps was the data rate. But with the emergence of broadband using certain advanced technologies, the same medium as in the UTP and coaxial cable could now be used to provide a higher data rate. Now, this is not only the higher data rate, but it is the convergence of services which eventually became the mandate of the NGN functional architecture to have unified services such as voice, data, and for instance the cable-based television channels on a single infrastructure. So with the broadband access, you can say that people can actually enjoy a myriad of services which were otherwise provided through different networks. Now, broadband technology is anything between 128 kbps to hundreds of megabits per second. The medium could be the twisted pair, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, or it could be wireless, both fixed and mobile.