As the world faces the possibility of geopolitics causing a breakdown of global standardization efforts in areas such as 5G, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is insisting that global standards are more critical than ever to counter the effects of the pandemic and consequent recession. Mario Maniewicz, director of the radiocommunication bureau at the ITU, speaking at Huawei’s Better World Summit 2020 last week, said his organization believes effective connectivity rests upon three interconnected pillars – global standards, national policies and international cooperation. “Looking back at the evolution of international mobile telecommunications, or IMT as we call it, we see that the astonishing growth of mobile networks was greatly due to the standardization of the third and fourth generation of…