ITU Telecom World

The world of voice communications is changing. A new technology called WebRTC will further accelerate the pace of change.

We’ve completely redesigned the web pages for this year’s event – as you’ll notice immediately if you’ve visited us before. And it’s not just about changing how it looks – it is part of our commitment to the one conversation that matters. Because this is just not an empty strapline. It’s our statement of intent and purpose.

Are young people in India simply uninterested in what is going on around them? Apathetic, un-opinionated, disengaged? Anshul Tewari, one of the winners of ITU Young Innovators Competition at ITU Telecom World 2012, doesn’t think so.

Albert Einstein sometimes used to torment his students at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. During a period of dramatic changes in physics he would set an exam paper containing exactly the same questions as the previous year. When challenged about this he remained unrepentant.
The questions may be the same as last year, he observed, but the answers are now different.

Just like physics in the middle of the last century, the ICT sector is currently undergoing a period of dramatic transition. And, again like physics, the end points of that transition are unknown. Just a few years ago life was so simple. We bought telephony services from the telephone company. We watched TV transmitted by the broadcasters. We left the internet to the scientists.

Today it’s so different. Today millions of people get their telephony services from TV broadcasters or internet service providers. They download TV programmes from the telephone companies and not only watch videos but also send out their own videos over the internet.

Usage of social media has dramatically changed the way people interact and communicate. Instead of direct person-to-person communication, in the digital world people are increasingly communicating through YouTube or Facebook comments and Twitter tweets.

Within the ICT sector today, everyone is after everyone else’s business. Services are arriving “over-the-top” (OTT), under the floor and round the side. The ICT world is changing.

For the players in the ICT sector – new as well as old – the fundamental questions remain the same. How do we remain competitive, deliver customer value, make money, and so survive? But the answers are changing as new technology breaks down the previous relationships between services and delivery mechanisms, and as new players with entirely new business models burst onto the scene.

ITU Telecom World 2012 in Dubai confronted all these issues. Influential leaders of industry, government, regulatory bodies, consultancy and academia highlighted the cultural and generational gap between internet companies offering OTT applications and conventional telco operators.

The debates were illuminating and constructive, reinforcing the importance of ITU Telecom World’s role as a neutral platform for all stakeholders in ICT – whether from public or private sectors – to share knowledge in an open collegiate environment.

Bringing together the public and private sectors is a key feature of the ITU Telecom World series. These are networking and knowledge sharing events open to all stakeholders. They do not formulate rules or propose treaties. But they do further understanding and cement relationships. They track the continuing evolution of the answers to the fundamental questions we all face.

Sessions at ITU Telecom World 2012 were webcast in their entirety. You can view them at world2012-live.itu.int. A summary of the significant, and sometimes surprising, conclusions from the debates has just been published in an Outcomes Report, which you can download here.

ITU Telecom World 2013 in Bangkok will again provide a neutral platform for all concerned to review the new answers that have emerged. I hope that all concerned will take advantage of this opportunity. Now more than ever it’s vital to continue sharing knowledge, experiences and ideas in an open and honest fashion.

One of the most striking themes running throughout ITU Telecom World 2012 in Dubai this October was the importance of youth, both for the future of the ICT sector and in driving socio-economic development globally.

The 12 finalists of the Young Innovators Competition, selected from nearly 400 entries from all parts of the world, were the most obvious manifestation of this, of course. The Young Innovator pavilion on the showfloor saw plenty of passing traffic and attracted interest from heads of state, ministers, UN organizations, CEOs and digital consultants alike. Besides a busy schedule of mentoring and pitching sessions, the innovators discussed the factors enabling – and inhibiting – innovation in a Youth and Leaders Debate and were formally awarded their prizes as part of the Forum Closing Conversation.

The Young Innovators were also referenced throughout the forum debate, where the role of young people in general in stimulating growth in the industry was a recurrent topic. Young people are the future leaders of government, business and digital thought – but they are also the source of ground-roots innovation today. These are the digital natives, born into a world where touchscreens,  video on demand and instant messaging are as natural as the (fixed-line) telephone was to a previous generation. Technology is an intrinsic part of their world, not a disruptive factor, and the ever-accelerating pace of change in the ICT sector is in part due to applications, services and content developed for, and by, today’s  digital natives.

This is why it is so important to engage with and listen to young people. Digital natives are the current user base and the future sector leaders; they connect with each other and the world in ways that are not immediately obvious to the digital immigrants of older generations presently at the helm of many ICT enterprises. The new services and business models discussed in Dubai and throughout the industry  must address digital natives as natural consumers – and can be informed and invigorated by the innovative thinking of the younger generation.

The Young Innovators Competition at ITU Telecom World, and the ongoing mentoring and growing community platform it offers between events, is very much part of this process. At ITU Telecom World 2013 in Bangkok next November, we aim to include more young people, whether competition finalists or prominent digital natives, in panels, workshops and roundtables throughout the event, to highlight their role and draw inspiration from their ideas and energy.

Until then, I would urge you to check in regularly to the blog updates on the World 2012 Competition Winners page, where you can follow the progress of these bright young people and their burgeoning projects and business plans over the course of the year. For real-life initiative, innovation and a taste of the future, there is nowhere more inspirational.