Categories
2017 Daily Highlights 2

A look into a smart, autonomous future with SK telecom

Smart homes, smart metering, quantum cryptography and 5G powered autonomous vehicles were among the innovations showcased by SK telecom at ITU Telecom World 2017.

Delegates were invited to discover a Do IoT Yourself kit, an educational kit to help explore SK telecom’s IoT smart homes solutions, with controls for fans, lights and doors.

Smart metering applications showcased included digital water metering services to help improve flow rate, provide data usage patterns and prevent accidents from abnormal pressure, amongst other areas. Monitoring services showed delegates how IoT can enable a cleaner environment and air, through fine dust monitoring. CleanCUBE, a waste management solution, is a smart powered trash compactor, monitoring levels of trash in real time. Lost pets can be tracked via a special collar, which can run for up to 5 days.

SK telecom’s IoT services and applications are enabled over its LTE-M and LoRa -dedicated IoT- networks, with over 70 IoT services expected to be deployed commercially as of end 2017.

A showcase of the quantum cryptography system demonstrated encryption solutions, based on quantum principles and 10 Gbps encryption, including a quantum random number generator.

As we progress along the road to autonomous driving, delegates were able to explore a self-driving car- introduced by the virtual Jessica- with cameras in mirrors, sensors, radar sensor and NUGU maps, as well as watch a video of its recent (last Thursday’s) 26km test run, on the public roads.

It’s clear we can expect exciting innovations spanning different sectors and transforming our lives in a number of ways, from our smart homes to how we drive and even the air we breathe.

Categories
2017 Daily Highlights 2

Innovative Corporate Strategies in the Era of the 4th Industrial Revolution

Representatives from KT, Nokia, Huawei joined together to discuss the huge potential for socio-economic development in terms of building and delivering personalized products and services, in the session sponsored by the host country, Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT.

The 4th industrial revolution offers huge potential for socio-economic development in terms of building and delivering personalized products and services at scale, dramatically increasing productivity and revenue, and creating new business models, competitors and markets.

Hossein Moiin, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Nokia Mobile Networks was optimistic that efficiency will be improved in the coming networks that enable the 4th industrial revolution. As he said, we could see a “30% productivity increase with ICT in all sectors by digitizing services.” While optimistic, he noted that investments are needed along with the right regulatory frameworks – to foster investments and ensure that the right resources are allocated.

“In the 4th industrial revolution, digitization is a must,” said Marcelo Motta, Digital Transformation and Big Data Market Management, VP of Marketing, Huawei Technologies. He discussed the ways that 5G is will allow faster speeds, enabling download of an 8G Byte movie in 6 seconds. He also alluded to the dramatic increase in connections per square kilometer. As he said, right now approximately there are 3-6 devices per person nowadays and, in the future, + 100 sensors per person with IoT.

Dongmyun Lee, CTO & Head of the Institute of Convergence Technology, KT Corporation discussed their plans for the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang to premiere 5G and other new services, such as personalized viewing at the games. “Unlike current media experience, where we just view it. We want interactivity in services. You can choose the place and time you want to see in great detail…” he said. The old broadcast concept will be gone within several years. Personalized viewing will become more relevant. That is just one service that the revolution will enable.

In addition to new services, the 4th industrial revolution may dramatically change the way we manufacture, connect, analyse and operate, creating new opportunities and new business models in the years to come.

Categories
Blog

New Trends in Spectrum Management

Smart cities are becoming a reality around the world – we are moving towards a seamlessly, wirelessly, connected society, whereby the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G are revolutionizing our lives, and innovative solutions such as TV White Space (TVWS) are helping to connect the most remote, rural, and densely populated places on earth. Yet during this evolution, somewhere along the way, billions of people have been left behind.

Four billion people, to be precise, are living without Internet access globally. This is causing a digital divide, which will only widen unless it is tackled head-on. Connecting the unconnected is an ongoing process – it won’t happen overnight. There are numerous challenges that must be solved and overcome to improve global connectivity. One such challenge of the digital divide is spectrum management.

Around the world there is a perception that spectrum scarcity is a barrier to connectivity. But in real terms, most spectrum is unused most of the time in most places – spectrum is abundant if utilized and managed appropriately. The use of spectrum sharing, through unlicensed and lightly-licensed spectrum, has the potential to alleviate at least some of the issues faced by the unconnected around the world.

The unprecedented, and ever-growing, demand for spectrum that we are currently witnessing requires new approaches to spectrum management and new tools to drive much more intensive and efficient use of spectrum compared to what we have seen before.

Dynamic spectrum management is an under-utilized approach that has the potential to revolutionize connectivity as we know it. When used effectively, it enables an understanding of what spectrum is used at any given location, and the protection requirements of the incumbent user, and an opportunistic use that does not interfere with the incumbent services.

This approach should not be viewed as a stand-alone technique, but as one of many complimentary solutions that can work in harmony, with the same end goal. There should be a balanced approach to spectrum management, which encompasses unlicensed, lightly-licensed, and licensed spectrum to get the most out of the spectrum we have available.

This approach is already being implemented around the world through TVWS technology, which is enabled through broadcast spectrum and is currently being trialled in the United States, Africa, and in parts of Scotland and Wales in the UK. The Citizen’s Broadcast Radio Service (CBRS) in the US is taking dynamic spectrum management to the next level by coordinating incumbent, licensed, and lightly-licensed users, to drive a much more intensive and efficient use of spectrum.

This kind of unifying approach will be crucial to the future of connectivity around the world, as we attempt to connect the remaining four billion, while also reducing the current digital divide and ensuring this kind of inequality does not gain momentum.

The demand for spectrum, for future data-hungry services including 5G, the IoT, and ‘smart’ applications, will be significant and there is no realistic chance to displace the number of incumbent services necessary to clear that spectrum in the traditional manner – particularly in the timeframe necessary to provide these services. Dynamic sharing provides the most efficient way to make new spectrum available because it starts by protecting the incumbent services. Sharing and co-existence must be part of the solution going forward.

I look forward to attending ITU World Telecom in September (25-28, Busan, Republic of Korea) and participating in a lively discussion on ‘New Trends in Spectrum Management’, which will cover aspects of this blog post in more depth.

Categories
2017 Daily Highlights 2

Huawei Press Conference

Mr. Veni Shone, Vice President of Wireless Solution from Huawei addressed the media at a press conference that outlined Huawei’s commitment to work with ITU to connect the unconnected.  Over 50 million families are using 4G and it is expected that 1 billion will connect through wireless broadband by 2030.  Huawei’s White Paper “4G Wireless Broadband Industry” gave insight into the initiatives that have impacted communities across the world.

Categories
2017 Daily Highlights 2

Memorandum of Understanding: ITU and CRMS

ITU Telecom World is renowned as a place to collaborate and commit to future goals.  Today saw the landmark signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the ITU and the CRMS of the Ministry of Science & ICT of the Republic of Korea on Space Radio Frequency Monitoring.  Mr. Francois Rancy signed on behalf of ITU and Mr. Moon, Director General of the CRMS signed on behalf of Rep. of Korea.

Categories
2017 Daily Highlights 2

Memorandum of Understanding: ITU and Korea Institute of Finance

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed today to formalise the intentions of ITU and Korea Institute of Finance to work together with research and study into digital finance.  The use of digital finance could boost the annual GDP of emerging economies by US$ 3.7 trillion by 2025. The reliance on Fintech brings with it a need for policy and technical standards for digital finance.  Dr Cheasub Lee, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau and My Myong Hwal Lee, Vice President of Korea Institute of Finance signed respectively.

Categories
2017 Daily Highlights 2

Nigeria @ ITU Telecom World 2017

Today marked Nigeria Day, and the Nigerian Pavilion was lively with guests and media for its official opening. ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao spoke warmly of the Nigerian support of ITU Telecom World events in this as well as previous years. The Nigeria Pavilion featured innovative products from SMEs and leading industry players driving the growth of Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. The Nigerian Communications Commission, which regulates the country’s high-growth telecoms sector, was also present to network and engage with participants to showcase developments and opportunities in the sector. The pavilion also hosted top government officials from the Ministry of Communications to engage at a high-level on flagship national projects and initiatives to deepen connectivity for better socio-economic impact.​

Categories
2017 Daily Highlights 2

The ITU-D/ITU-R/ITU Bookshop Pavilion

The ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D) Pavilion showcased their upcoming events including WTDC in Buenos Aires and the 25th Year Celebration of the Development Sector of ITU. The Pavilion also highlighted the important work of their members including Hyundai-Motors, NTT Korea, OKI, Swisscom and Vodafone Egypt, GSMA and more.

Beginning 26 September, ITU-D will be hosting daily workshops on building ICT centric ecosystems and bridging the innovation divide. These workshops deliver hands-on training for delegates who want to accelerate the development of their digital economies.  Seating is limited to 25, so please reserve in advance by sending an email to innovation@itu.int

Meanwhile, the ITU-R pavilion is celebrating the 90th anniversary of CCIR/ITU-R Study Groups by showcasing the role of the ITU-R process to support global regulations and in developing global standards on the use of spectrum. Visitors to the pavilions can receive complimentary USB keys with information highlighting the important work of the 2 ITU sectors.

The ITU Bookshop is selling copies of ITU’s key publications, memorabilia and souvenirs. Guests are invited to visit the ITU Bookshop and to participate in a survey for a chance to win great prizes.

Categories
2017 Daily Highlights 2

South Africa @ ITU Telecom World 2017

The Republic of South Africa held a press conference today to outline the opportunities for investment and development in the region.  Director General at DTPS, Mr Robert Nkuna introduced DTPS, and Minister Dr Siyabonga Cwele gave an inspirational account of the work to date to connect the unconnected.  The demand for education comes directly from those in the most rural parts of the country, with educational content the most popular of all content available online.  Dr Cwele praised the ITU for the successful organizing of ITU Telecom World 2017 and providing opportunities to engage with the industry and share ideas on topical issues. He also expressed his hope to bring ITU Telecom World to South Africa in 2018.

Categories
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.