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2017 Daily Highlights 1

AI in smart cities: power, potential, ethics and education

We on the panel are all here to make life better for customers, residents and citizens, commented Keng Thai Leong, Deputy Chief Executive of Singapore’s InfoComm Media Development Authority, in his opening remarks as session co-host. “The growing power and falling costs of computing makes for much faster and richer data analysis,” he said, meaning AI can be put to good use around the world in analyzing the ever-increasing wealth of sensor data, identifying and treating disease, enhancing public safety or improving city services.

For a small, resource-poor city-state such as Singapore, he added, the benefits of AI and other technologies are particularly important in overcoming restraints, addressing pressing needs and planning for the future. A future, which in Singapore will feature shared personalized transport in the form of driverless taxis, personalized health care, and enhanced finance and city management services.

Asked by moderator Jean-Manuel Canet, Senior Manager at Orange Consulting, to provide an optimal model of a smart city and how AI can contribute to it, the panelists were in agreement on a basic definition: smart cities are based on using intelligence from data analysis to improve city living with limited resources and low investment.

For Chi Hyung Lee, President of the Seoul Digital Foundation, the key to becoming a smart city is simply: connect everything in a city – people, spaces and things – and collect the data in one platform. Big data and AI are the tools that enable the enormous amounts of data generated in this way to be analyzed effectively and insightfully. As cities become more and more data-driven, AI will be become increasingly important in providing solutions to everything from transportation to construction, public services and government initiatives.

Winnie Tang, Founder and Honorary President of Smart City Consortium, agreed that smart cities, by their very nature, are driven by government, but that collaboration with the private sector, with academia and with other smart cities around the world is essential. Full interconnectivity, autonomous cars, smart traffic and parking, are part of “the grand vision to save energy, save time, and save lives.”

A vision of a slightly different nature was outlined by Idonae Lovetrue, Founder and CEO of Demiurge Technologies, who saw the key innovation of AI in smart cities as establishing and understanding causal relationships thrown up by data, rather than the current big data-driven models based on superficial understanding or correlations. “People are the biggest asset of a city. We should look at what AI can do to service humans and unleash our human capacity, our creativity potential,” she said. AI should be in every physical hub and infrastructure, doing the work that machines do best, releasing us from mundane tasks such housework, enabling us to “let our human brains shine” –  doing what we are most suited to, using our new-found time and freedom to flourish creatively and live longer and healthier lives.

Allan Phua, Director of the InfoComm Media Development Authority’s Data Innovation Programme Office, echoed this excitement at the power of AI to allow us to collate and understand human behaviour more accurately than ever before, sharing and unlocking potential through analytics across a range of services and activities – including thwarting terrorism and security threats, or processing language to understand key trends in public discourse and better structure public services.

“AI is not solution to all problems; it is not a panacea or magic technology,” he said. “It has to augment human behaviour and effort, making what we do better.” The best approach is to combine technology with other processes and disciplines such as design or psychology, rather than working with AI in a silo.

Deciding what technology to deploy in smart cities is the wrong way to go about things, agreed the panel. The starting point is always the problem itself, be it traffic congestion, public health or urban redevelopment. AI is one of a range of technologies, used for specific problem-solving rather than for its own sake.

And AI is not just about public service problems, or about the government providing answers. It is important for industry to be involved, “to co-develop solutions and solve real problems so that technology is relevant to people, “ he concluded.

AI and the development of smart cities can certainly create a better quality of life, but it needs to be balanced with ensuring the privacy of our data, said Tang.  It is important that citizens are educated on the benefits of smart cities and encouraged to engage; but there needs to be awareness of what data is involved, and perhaps regulation to protect the end user. “Technology and analytics will improve security,” but ultimately, there’s no way to use AI without compromising security.

There are no internationally recognised KPIs for a smart city, no straightforward definition or standard concept of what makes a city smart.  Openness of data and availability of APIs are a basic criteria; but all users also need to be comfortable with the use of technology by government and each other.

Different cities proceed at different paces, using technology to solve specific, and different problems. There is no end to the problems that AI can solve in a city, and many ways in which technology can be applied to provide a solution. But two core elements of AI in smart cities emerged from the discussion: the need for a human-centric approach and multi-stakeholder cooperation. And above all, we must work to avoid the danger of an AI digital divide, a divide of international talent and a new smart city divide.

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2017 Daily Highlights 1

Indonesia at ITU Telecom World 2017

A first-time exhibitor at ITU Telecom World events, Indonesia is showcasing their successful experience in fostering the incubation and development of various Digital Economy business models, which has proven to be practical, effective and scalable for addressing the need for reducing wealth and income disparity, by empowering the domestic MSME (Micro Small & Medium Enterprises) sector with digital connectivity and technical capabilities. The Indonesia Pavilion includes MSMEs working in areas as diverse as B2C and B2B payment systems, SME online market places, agricultural and aquaculture online platforms.

At the Indonesian Press Conference which took place on Monday 25 September, H.E. Mr Rudiantara, Minister of Communication and Informatics, praised the enthusiasm of the micro-businesses who are the backbone of the initiative to solve wealth distribution disparity. Mr Zulhelfi Abidin, Director of Network and IT Solution at PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, spoke of the need to ensure the infrastructure was in place to enable entrepreneurship.  Entrepreneurs from start-ups, SMEs and unicorns were present to support the initiative and talk about their own experiences.

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2017 Daily Highlights 1

Leadership Summit: Digital transformation – visions of smart societies

Education, security, connectivity, public private partnerships, cooperation: any vision of a smart society is dependent on all of these, but above all, on developing human capacity, our very way of being. This was the conclusion of the opening session of the Leadership Summit, moderated with zeal by Jeremy Wilks of Euronews.

Digital transformation is about much more than just technology. It is about changing the way we do business, in government, in the private sector and as citizens. “It is not an incremental change, not just a question of using technology, but of transforming our lives and our ways of thinking,” said H.E. Debretsion Michael, Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Ethiopia “The biggest challenge of digital transformation is the cultural change. We have to move out of our comfort zone and into a new world, a new mindset.”

Beate Degin, Partner, EY, echoed the need for new ways of working, communicating and interacting. Technology may be the great enabler, but it all comes down to people. And not everyone will see the immediate benefits of smart societies: many will be overwhelmed by the extent of change, or worried by the real danger of losing their jobs. This, she warned, is something we must plan for, given that whole nations will be transformed, not just an industry or a sector: “Smart societies need to embrace everyone and not leave anyone behind”

ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao reminded us that connectivity is fundamental to any smart vision, particular in world where half the population still has no access to the internet: “If you want to have a smart society, you first have to make sure people are connected. That’s the challenge.”  It is increasingly accepted that ICTs are enablers for development around the world. But with the private sector developing new technologies and networks, and demands on government spread over a variety of key areas such as health, education and transport, it is not easy to find the investment in ICT necessary to move ahead with connectivity and, ultimately, smart cities.

The solution may lie in collaboration, international cooperation, and public-private partnerships – such as this panel, composed of representatives from government, international organizations, operators and manufacturers.

This joined-up approach was seconded by Hossein Moiin, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Nokia Mobile Networks, who called for additional intelligence not just in communications but also in all interconnected fields, bringing the benefits of digital innovation to transportation, energy, education, food, health, environmental sustainability and sanitation.

As for the challenge of connectivity, he recommended: “Allow innovators to do what they do best, allow diffusion of technologies to take place, and the lack of a digital divide will become a fact, not a fantasy.”

There is also the very real danger of increasing the digital divide with smart technologies, rather than bridging it, reminded Patrick Masambu, Director General and CEO, ITSO. But perhaps the solution to the underlying connectivity problem is closer than we think: the satellite industry can offer point to point services, metropolitan and rural reach, and established infrastructure providing global coverage in the sky – if not yet on the ground. A technology-neutral approach and a willingness to take advantage of what we already have in place may enable us to move forward quickly.

Developments in satellite technologies enabling higher throughput and the ability to reuse frequencies will put management of resources in the hands of the users, creating a more cost-effective way of delivering services. Innovations in mobility and power, including small antennas on vehicles to provide mobile services and solar-powered VSAT systems, will connect rural communities from space with cheap and easy-to-install ground equipment. Yet again, the key word is public-private-partnerships: “It is important to pilot PPP projects as proof of concept. Once you have proved that something is viable, financing then become easy, deployment more acceptable and you can reach connectivity.”

How can we encourage the private sector to invest in partnerships and infrastructure? A mixture of the right spectrum policies, government commitment to connectivity as a necessity rather than a luxury, a level playing field for service providers and cross-border measures, according to Nokia’s Moiin.

H.E. Michael reminded us that even with networks, hardware and software, people remain key. Technology alone is not enough. Education, in particular digital literacy, is the single most important step necessary to bring about transformation and move towards smart societies. Developing human resources is critical, from basic digital literacy, to coding in primary schools and higher technical education, from private sector innovations to government initiatives. Raising awareness of the importance of technology is the first step; human capacity is at the heart of smart transformation.

The panel agreed on the need to be realistic about the “dark side” of smart societies, as far as we can foretell: some jobs will be lost forever, the nature of the workforce will change, we will become increasingly transparent in the era of algorithms, and the need for a delicate government balancing act between ensuring security and safeguarding privacy. And the long term impact of smart technology on our ability to make up our own mind and take decisions is unclear; as Degen put it, “We all need to have the courage to say no, to questions things, otherwise we will just follow one or two big machines in the world – which would make us not a smart society, but the opposite thereof.”

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2017 Daily Highlights 1

ITU Telecom World 2017 opens for business

Innovative technologies including 5G, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT) were high on the agenda today as the doors opened for ITU Telecom World 2017, the global tech event for governments, corporates and SMEs.

More than 5,250 people are registered to attend the event, including 500+ exhibitors, bringing with them the smartest ideas and entrepreneurial spirit of digital start-ups and ICT small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) together with governments, regulators, industry leaders, consultants and experts from emerging and developed markets representing 131 countries around the world.

The start of the event was marked by a spectacular opening ceremony featuring a live orchestra and traditional dance performance from Busan National Gukak Centre, with a video message delivered by Moon Jae-in, President of the Republic of Korea. Participating in the ceremony were (in speaking order) Young Min You, Minister of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea; Byung-soo Suh, Mayor of Busan Metropolitan City; Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General; Abdulaziz Bin Salem Al Ruwais, Governor, Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), Saudi Arabia; Majed Al Mesmar, Deputy Director General, Telecom Sector, Telecommunciations Regulatory Authority, United Arab Emirates; Rudiantara, Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Indonesia; Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele, Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, South Africa; István Mikola, Minister of State for Security and International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hungary; and Edwin Estrada Hernández,Deputy Minister of Telecommunications, Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications, Costa Rica.

What to look out for

Following the official opening of ITU Telecom World 2017, under the theme “Smart digital transformation, global opportunities,” debates began in earnest, with the Leadership Summit, moderated by European media giant Euronews, which convened high-level experts from public and private sectors to explore visions of smart societies in the future, as well as  the best ways to build resilience into smart technologies, systems and cities.

During the four-day event, Forum sessions are delving into a rich and timely set of topics including: maximizing the opportunities of smart  digital transformation, how telecommunication companies can transform their operations, how we can develop and scale digital literacy, the industry sectors most likely to lead the 5G revolution, and the potential impact of AI on financial services.

The Exhibition showcases digital solutions and investment opportunities from both governments and industry, representing emerging and developed markets, including tech SMEs. Technologies on display include artificial intelligence, virtual reality, smart health, smart finance, IoT, radio frequency spectrum solutions, spectrum management, smart city technologies and more.

The prestigious ITU Telecom World Awards ceremony, recognizing excellence and innovation in ICT solutions with social impact from SMEs and corporates alike, will also be held during the event. Winners will be announced on 29 September, at the closing of the event.

ITU Telecom World 2017 will also provide a host of targeted networking opportunities including B2B and B2G business matchmaking, as well as sharing perspectives from the ITU and its membership and partners. This will include a host of engaging side events on trending topics, a number of important agreements to be signed, and several new technical publications to be launched – including the new ITU ICT Discoveries Journal.

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2017 Daily Highlights 1

Smart ABC –Showcasing innovation for Smart AI, Banking and Cities

The Smart ABC Pavilion is hosting a range of interactive displays throughout the day, including hands free testing with the networked car. Live demonstrations with social robots who can have natural dialogue with humans was a highlight for visitors.

The Pavilion also hosted two ‘Lucky Draw’ giveaways to lucky contestants. Feel free to drop by on 26, 27, 28 September at 11:00 and 14:30 for your chance to win.

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2017 Daily Highlights 1

Adrenaline-filled VR space wars signpost way to future with KT

KT visitors were invited to hone their space piloting and car racing skills in high-action VR games, the centerpiece of KT’s impressive stand in the ITU Telecom World 2017 Exhibition. Also on show were KT’s latest innovations in the fields 5G, IoT, AI, machine learning, smart solutions plus partners Motion House-VR motion simulator, IRISYS-facial and iris recognition and ISUNG’s IoT powered LED signage.

Showcases outlined how different technologies will impact and improve lives in a host of areas spanning autonomous driving, air quality monitoring or energy management to helping curb the spread of infectious diseases and AI- TV.

5G network optimization, with ultra-low latency (sub 10ms), will enable users to enjoy speeds matching that of a local PC, even when working on high-performance graphics work. With commercial 5G deployment planned for 2019, the network will enable applications such as safe autonomous driving, precisely identifying locations and establishing v2X without any blind spots.

GiGA IoT powered platforms, harnessing KTs national infrastructure, will help monitor outdoor air quality and using big data will analyse organic fine dust state, providing forecasts by region, season and time.

KT’s Smart quarantine harnesses big data analysis of infectious disease data plus the user’s mobile roaming data to provide information to visitors to countries with infectious diseases, enabling users to receive targeted text messages with infectious disease information, helping them prevent the spread of infectious diseases like MERS, Zika or SARS

KT-MEG is the world’s first AI-realized integrated energy management platform, helping prevent energy waste and enhancing power generation revenue by predicting photovoltaic power generation

Also on show was KT’s high speed GiGA Wire technology and GiGA Genie, a home AI service which replaces an existing set-top TV box. GiGA Genie offers voice and distant speech recognition to have AI conversations with users, and a deep learning platform.

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2017 Daily Highlights 1

Ministers attending ITU Telecom World 2017 explore Busan Smart City

On September 24, the Vice Mayor for Economic Affairs in Busan, Kim Young-whan, welcomed a dozen distinguished Ministers from across Asia, Africa and the Middle East to participate in an interactive Smart City Tour at the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency (BIPA), to witness first-hand the innovations behind the Smart City infrastructure in Busan and to exchange and share ideas for advancing smart city infrastructure and services.

On display was an array of smart city technologies designed for community safety, traffic improvement, urban living, energy conservation, and more. The Ministers were able to learn about the smart city open data projects that are aiding citizens in their daily lives and also participated in live demonstrations of real-time enabled data monitoring systems already at work in the city of Busan.

As the Vice Mayor noted in his welcome remarks, the city of Busan is a pioneering Smart City with a “first of its kind” policy that was announced at ITU’s Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan in 2014. The attending Ministers were able to learn from the success of the test-bed projects currently deployed and to get inspired for the new IoT-led solutions that aim to improve the lives of citizens everywhere.

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Accelerating a Digital Future through Resilient Smart City Networks

There are profound implications of global changes resulting from rapid urbanization, demographic shifts and increasingly advanced digital technologies. The United Nations predicts that by 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in urban centers.

Digitalization is empowering cities to respond quickly to these demographic and economic shifts, and responsive, scalable technology is what will make smart cities “smart”. While the advancement stages of smart cities vary across the world, the overarching goal is to leverage technology to improve public services, optimize the administration of the city and better the lives of its citizens. This could mean new solutions like intelligent transport systems for traffic flow in real-time to reduce congestion, improvement of public safety through automated surveillance, or e-government services to improve efficiency. In Asia, for example, the Smart City Playbook commissioned by Nokia found that Singapore was one of the most ‘sustainable’ and ‘smartest’ cities in the world. With mature and intelligent transport applications, it is well-placed to capitalize on its stable economy, efficient public administration and co-creation approach to take its Smart Nation vision into reality.

The success of any smart city will depend on the effective combination of ubiquitously embedded intelligence in the form of connected sensors and tags, software that power various solutions, and the digital telecommunication networks that serve as the backbone of the city. What’s concerning, however, is that some networks today in Asia may not be entirely equipped to manage the growing bandwidth and latency needs of the millions of connected devices that will power smart cities. Our Nokia Bell Labs Consulting report found that surging consumer and business demand for mobile data, either at home or on the go, will outpace the network capabilities of service providers by 2020. In fact, nearly 20% of mobile traffic demands will not be satisfied based on current and projected economies.

In the next decade, the digital economy will impact everyone and will demand for cities to create connectivity through next generation networks – the essential ingredient that make smart cities attractive to businesses and citizens.

The pressure is now on local governments to manage these large volumes of data, while huge investments in time and capital are needed to make even the most basic features of a smart city possible. Banks, for example, are already utilizing the predictive power of analytics to shape customer relationships. By leveraging the data power of the private sector, banks may be able to help emerging smart cities become more established. With smart cities being built on data, the ‘smart banking’ concept is likely to play a critical role in the development of smart cities. ‘Cashless’ transactions mean you no longer have to carry around cash – or even plastic cards – nor will you have to queue up at an ATM. A concept that may feel strange to some but in countries like China and India, the ‘digital natives’ identified as the millennials and Gen-Y are more accepting towards new technologies. Their desire to be hyper-connected and the need for instant gratification allows them to take on high financial risks. Roughly half of Chinese consumers use fintech for payments compared to less than 1% in markets such as Indonesia and Thailand. Services such as peer to peer lending or blockchain are already set to disrupt the sector and we are seeing regulators reacting. But is it fast enough? The agility we show as a collaborative community will be fundamental to making daily life for citizens more convenient, efficient, sustainable and most importantly, safe.

As we accelerate towards this digital future, we are also reminded of the painful reality that cybersecurity is and will be part of the equation in a data-driven world. The increased number of connected devices means potentially higher security risks and vulnerabilities – both to malicious attacks and unintentional incidents. In fact, the Nokia Threat Intelligence Report revealed a sharp increase in major IoT device security vulnerabilities, while smartphones accounted for 85% of mobile infections. As the industry tackles the advancements on security solutions, the real threat comes from lack of regulation for data privacy. Today, data is captured at every instance, whether it is the type of music, the places we visit or our financial and health records. We live in a time when TV shows are designed based on user analytics. Hence the way this information is used creates an explosive risk factor. A simple hack today can result in us losing our personal information such as credit cards, social security or more. And, in the future, with the advent of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, we will see the emergence of a new type of cybercrime. This calls for an urgent need for the public and private sectors to collaborate even more and build regulation for smart cities to thrive and prosper.

Ultimately, to support the growing needs of IoT-driven smart cities, future networks will need to be safe, designed to prevent congestion, support edge cloud architecture for ultra-low latency required by mission-critical IoT applications, be cost effective, which can be achieved through virtualized network functions, and be highly scalable. To build such a network, governments, network operators and telecom equipment providers need to collaborate to design and architect the essential building blocks of the smart city: City-wide connectivity, network, the cloud, IoT platforms and an ecosystem of trusted partners.

The process of making a city smart is extremely complex. The possibilities are there…but they are not a foregone conclusion. We are on the cusp of a revolution in changing the way we live, work and play, so we must strive for innovation and invest towards infrastructure.

The question is, are our networks resilient enough today to accelerate this digital future?

Danial Mausoof will be speaking at the session on The value of smart banking: the operational key to making smart cities work at ITU Telecom World 2017

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Spectrum for the digital future; spectrum for basic broadband access

I write this having just concluded the annual CTO ICT Forum in Maputo, Mozambique, where we examined the vast potential for economic growth in a digital future comprising virtual environments, IoT and augmented reality applications. However, with over half the world’s population still not connected to the Internet, how will these people, communities and economies reap the benefits a digital future has to offer? The allocation and regulation of spectrum in this environment will play a vital role – both in ensuring that everyone has access to this digital future and ensuring that the digital future becomes today.

Information and communication technologies have a significant role to play in delivering the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals. And so the Internet, and increasingly a mobile connection to the Internet, is critical for us to meet these goals. But 3.9 billion people – over half of the global population – still do not have access to the Internet and the digital divide continues to grow.

The most recent report from the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development has also found that gaps in transmission speeds are increasing – a worrying finding as this will impact on the ability of citizens to make use of the technologies of the digital future.

The radio spectrum is an essential resource for wireless communications. Demand for spectrum has increased exponentially as mobile data becomes increasingly prevalent. This demand is only likely to grow as we make more use of the potential available to us through e-health, e-education and e-government initiatives. As we look to progress smart cities, spectrum must support this interconnection. The possibilities offered by IoT and augmented reality applications are still unknown, but what is certain is that spectrum will be required to realise this promise.

So it is clear that reaching this digital future is dependent on good spectrum management. As we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the CCIR/ITU Radiocommunication Study Groups, and the 111th anniversary of the Radio Regulations, it is good to examine the important role the ITU plays in spectrum allocation.

Through the important process of the World Radiocommunication Conferences, the ITU ensures that radio-spectrum frequencies are allocated appropriately. Without this crucial role, digitally connecting the world wirelessly would not be possible.

The Commonwealth has a role to play in the international process of spectrum use. As a distinct sub-set of the world’s countries – including developed countries, developing countries, least developed countries, small island states and landlocked countries – spanning every continent, the Commonwealth is bound together by shared values and principles, cooperating in the common interests of its peoples and working as an effective network for promoting development. So gaining consensus among Commonwealth countries on key issues relating to ICTs, such as spectrum, can play a critically important role in fostering wider international agreement.

It was in this spirit that the CTO organised a preparatory meeting for WRC-15, providing a platform to examine different regional stances on key issues and reaching consensus on some agenda items in order to assist with the WRC-15 process. We have since followed up by launching a new conference series on spectrum management, the Commonwealth Spectrum Management Forum, with the aim of building the capacity of our stakeholders in managing spectrum as well as helping them to prepare for, and implement WRC outcomes. Our next event will take place in London on 25 – 27 October 2017.

There are many important spectrum issues for consideration in this exciting time for the digital future and I look forward to discussing them with colleagues from across the international ICT community at ITU Telecom World.

Shola Taylor will be speaking on Enabling and shaping the wireless ecosystem: Celebrating the 90th anniversary of CCIR/ITU-R Study Groups on Wednesday 27 September at 4.45 pm. You can also find out more about the CTO by visiting stand 1210.05 at the ITU Telecom World exhibition.

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Satellite-Based Solutions for Smart Societies

From September 25th to 28th, 2017, I attend the ITU Telecom World in Busan, Korea and will participate in the Leadership Summit panel, titled Digital transformation: visions of smart societies on September 25th.

The term smart means communities that are both economically and environmentally sustainable without sacrificing the comfort and quality of life for its citizens. It is the convergence of physical and digital infrastructure, where ICTs are used to make life more efficient and sustainable.[1] The scope of Smart Societies can encompass infrastructure and governance; energy and climate change; pollution and waste management; and applications regarding social, economy, and health initiatives.

However, there cannot be any real discussion of creating Smart Societies without making significant strides in connecting the unconnected and promoting digital inclusion. There are several different facets of digital inclusion: implementing infrastructure that facilitates coverage and connectivity, and social policies that promote access and use of ICTs and digital literacy. Those who are on the “have not” side of the digital divide are often the poor, marginalized sectors of society as well as those in rural, remote or geographically challenged areas.

In order to connect these vulnerable populations, it is necessary to look at different combinations of broadband technologies. Satellite-based solutions can help bring vital services to under connected populations either on their own or in combination with other technologies because:

  • Satellites are point-to-multipoint systems, i.e., they do not end at a single, specific point, but can reach all geographic targets within a given area, thus giving instantaneous coverage over a region.
  • Satellite technology is well suited to provide full coverage, in metropolitan as well as in rural or most remote areas, including mountainous regions, islands, the seas and the skies.
  • Satellite infrastructure already exists, the provision of services only requires the purchase of ground equipment.
  • The cost of services is independent of distance or number of subscribers.
  • Satellite operators can also work in commercial partnerships with terrestrial telecommunications networks to offer integrated service to users.

By using satellite-based solutions, it is possible to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness and thereby bridge vast distances to bring knowledge, assistance and resources to those who need it, wherever they are, in a sustainable manner that fits into the paradigms of Smart Societies. Satellite can also be a great asset to important aspects of Smart Societies such as service quality, environmental sustainability, resilient infrastructure, mobility, and responsiveness to IoT requirements.

For instance, in order to keep continuous service to Smart Societies, it is necessary that infrastructure be resilient enough to withstand natural and man-made disasters, so as to kickstart relief and reconstruction efforts. After a catastrophe, terrestrial infrastructure could be affected in such a way that connectivity is destroyed, making it impossible for government agencies and humanitarian organizations to deploy their relief efforts. Satellite infrastructure is an important part of resilient infrastructure because it is independent of terrestrial infrastructure and can be a dependable resource during earthquakes, tsunamis and any other kind of catastrophe to ensure that a nation’s telecommunications infrastructure is still functional.

Moreover, Smart Societies must take into account the increasingly mobile nature of broadband. Satellite technology is an important resource to mobility because it can provide mobile broadband on its own and serve as a valuable resource to mobile networks through its backhaul capabilities. Mobile satellite terminals can bring broadband to notoriously hard to reach sectors.

At the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO), one of our main objectives is to ensure global coverage and connectivity through the use of satellite communications and the ITSO treaty presents a powerful commitment to making available the necessary tools for countries to implement ICT projects such as smart societies and other elements of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In conclusion, I hope we can all work together to ensure that inclusive smart societies are attainable by all countries no matter their level of socio-economic development.

[1] See https://wftp3.itu.int/pub/epub_shared/TSB/ITUT-Tech-Report-Specs/2016/en/flipviewerxpress.html for more information.