The past, present and future of ICT - Houlin Zhao, ITU Deputy Secretary-General, responds
In an exclusive interview prior to the ITU Telecom World event, Houlin Zhao, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Deputy Secretary-General, provides an incisive insight.
Houlin Zhao, ITU Deputy Secretary-General
Swiss Style: What challenges does the ICT sector currently face? Houlin Zhao: The worldwide economic downturn has adversely affected all economic sectors, including ICTs. But our industry is very resilient. We already battled our own crisis at the beginning of the millennium and we learned some important lessons. Most ICT companies are therefore in good shape to weather the storm and should come through the crisis relatively unscathed.
It’s worth remembering that the ICT industry has created more jobs over the past five years than any other single industrial sector. ITU believes ICT can help power economic recovery across all sectors. That’s why this year’s ITU Telecom World event comes at such a critical time for the industry. The public and private sectors need to continue to invest in infrastructure and the roll-out of new cost-effective services, such as next-generation networks.
With the theme of Open Networks – Connected Minds, this year’s ITU Telecom World Exhibition and Forum will bring together key stakeholders from across the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, and from around the world. Comprising a cutting-edge Exhibition, Forum and unique business networking platform, the event will strive to address the shared global challenges that face the industry in today’s tough economic climate.
As well as prominent exhibitors and speakers from government and leading ICT developers and R&D organizations worldwide, ITU Telecom World 2009 will welcome UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who will officially open the event on 5 October. The event will also feature a special Heads of State segment that will bring together world leaders who can help drive ICT investment and economic recovery.
In addition, for the first time ITU Telecom World incorporates special thematic elements designed to highlight the role and reach of technology in areas such as bridging the digital divide, climate change, e-Health, education and disaster relief. With its dual focus on business and development, the event combines investment opportunities and corporate social responsibility, and highlights best practices in driving socio-economic development through ICT.
SS: What changes are being brought about by convergence? HZ: With new technologies and platforms steadily eroding the links between infrastructure and applications, convergence is the most powerful driving force shaping today’s ICT environment.
After years of anticipation, converged services are finally here – and they are not just transforming the way we share information, they are rewriting the rules in a host of policy related areas:
- In terms of devices, more digital cameras will be sold in 2009 than all the analogue cameras ever manufactured – with the vast majority simply incorporated into mobile phones.
- In terms of networks, the provision of voice services is no longer limited to the copper-wire POTS network, but can also be transmitted over the Internet, along coaxial cable TV links, over the airwaves using a range of wireless technologies – and even over hybrid combinations of these networks.
- In terms of applications, bundling is now the rule: in mature markets, Internet and voice services are often now marketed together, sometimes with mobile and TV service as optional extras.
Converged next-generation networks (NGNs) encompass a range of technological platforms that will support the emerging wave of con-verged services. NGNs are the nucleus of ITU’s NGN Global Standards Initiative, the most ambitious and wide-ranging international standardization initiative ever undertaken. ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) has already approved over 60 NGN Recommendations and NGNs are now beginning to be deployed around the world.
At the same time, ITU’s Radio communication Sector is now forging ahead to define the next-generation mobile technologies that will put advanced wireless services in users’ pockets – accessible at any time and from virtually anywhere. Under the umbrella of “IMT-Advanced”, ITU-R Study Groups are working on new platforms and services that will support fast data access, unified messaging and broadband multi-media, and delivered in the form of exciting new interactive mobile services.
“ITU Telecom World 2009 will help inject new energy into the many development opportunities that still await governments and private industry alike, through a number of exciting Forum sessions that spotlight development issues such as regulatory reform, accessible pricing and extending broadband to under-served communities.”
Convergence also brings exciting new opportunities – and technical challenges – in the area of ICT accessibility. Empowering persons with disabilities to harness technology to help them achieve their potential is one of the central tenets of the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
ITU has been active in this area for many years, and since 2008 has significantly stepped up efforts through the establishment of a Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF) and the setting up of an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability. A special Thematic Pavilion at this year’s ITU Telecom World – Empowering People with Disabilities through ICTs – will be dedicated to developments in this area.
SS: What are the priorities on ITU’s agenda, going forward? HZ: ITU believes ICTs can play a major role in helping to mitigate climate change. In their manufacture, use and disposal, ICTs currently contribute between 2–3% of CO2. But their potential benefits greatly outweigh their carbon overhead. ICTs can not only pro-vide “smart” solutions to reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, they can act as catalysts for increased efficiency, energy savings and emission reductions.
More effective use of ICTs could help contribute up to 15% in global emission reductions by 2020. For example, the deployment of NGNs can cut power consumption in large public networks by up to 40%.
At the same time, sensor-based networks based on RFID & telemetry can deliver key climate data via satellite and radio-based technologies, for both long-term monitoring and highly effective early warning systems to help avert or minimize natural disasters.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited ITU to address global issues such as climate change, saying: “Climate change is the moral challenge of our generation… ITU is one of the most important stakeholders in terms of climate change.” To that end, at ITU we are spearheading a number of initiatives in our technical sectors, from new low-power technical standards to globally agreed methodologies for measuring the impact of emissions.
This year’s ITU Telecom World event will feature a special Thematic Pavilion dedicated to Green@ICT. At the same time, our world-class Forum programme will feature a special stream on ICT and climate change: New ways forward for green ICT.
Also prominent on the ITU calendar is the issue of cybersecurity. In May 2007, we launched our Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA), a new global initiative framework for international cooperation aimed at enhancing confidence and security.
Building on this, ITU has recently fostered initiatives such as Child Online Protection (COP) and is currently collaborating with the Malaysian government and the state-of-the-art IMPACT facility in Kuala Lumpur to deliver up-to-date information about current cyber-threats around the world. The ITU Telecom World 2009 Forum will spotlight advances and issues in this critical area through a stream entitled Cybersecurity: Keeping our networks secure today, and for future generations.
Finally, we continue to focus our efforts on bridging the “digital divide”. I’m pleased to note that the total number of telephone subscribers in UN-designated Least Developed Countries as a whole has risen more than 20 fold since the year 2000, from around 5 million to well over 120 million.
We believe that bridging the digital divide and achieving the connectivity targets of the MDGs is critical to achieve the broader goals of development and promoting sustainable growth. That is why ITU recently took the bold strategy of advancing MDG connectivity targets from 2015 to 2012.
ITU Telecom World 2009 will help inject new energy into the many development opportunities that still await governments and private industry alike, through a number of exciting Forum sessions that spotlight development issues such as regulatory reform, accessible pricing and extending broadband to underserved communities.
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