*East Africa** Broadband Connectivity Workshop* The Global Digital Freedom Institute (GDFI), inveneo, and balancing act in cooperation with the United States’ Digital Freedom Initiative (DFI), are pleased to invite you to join colleagues from telecommunications ministries, the information and communications technology (ICT) industries and non-profit communities, to participate in a roundtable discussion about ways of accelerating deployment of high-speed broadband networks in Eastern Africa. The discussion will take place on Thursday, May 10 at the Hotel des Mille Collines, in Kigali, Rwanda beginning at 8:00 am and ending at 5:00pm. It will immediately follow a two day *East Africa Regional Broadband Workshop** **that** *the U.S. Digital Freedom Initiative, under the leadership of Ambassador David A. Gross, will be holding on May 8-9 with Telecommunications Ministers and private/academic sector leaders from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. The ministerial-level DFI Workshop will examine potential models and produce a road map for expanding broadband connectivity in East Africa. The follow-up, roundtable discussion on May 10 will delve more deeply into the issues and further refine policy and infrastructure build-out options identified during the preceding two-day DFI workshop. These will include but not necessarily be limited to the following three tasks: · Examining specific steps that ICT businesses and governments in East Africa could take to remove or relax impediments to broadband deployment. · Discussing the feasibility of implementing the policy and infrastructure options developed during the two-day workshop and suggesting enhancements where necessary. · Focusing on connecting universities in the region and building on the work that has already been accomplished. We hope you will view this meeting as an opportunity to positively influence the deployment of broadband networks and applications throughout East Africa, and we very much hope that you will join us in this effort. *Please RSVP by May 1 by e-mail to gmccoy@gdfi.org <mailto:gmccoy@gdfi.org>. *