ITU Telecom in words
It is about inspiration, it is about great networking, it is a great audience to have a top down impact to change the world in a better way, to improve humanity.
Should we be radically thinking of how we regulate the industry when media, voice, radio, TV, is coming over the broadband pipes to our homes and to our smart devices?
The future we imagined is being realized faster than we predicted
We still have some way to go before the whole of mankind is within reach of a telephone. One of the most important factors in achieving that goal will be ensuring the availability of expertise to operate such a truly worldwide network
5G is 5G for consumers, but 1G for vertical and industrial applications.
More and more consumers are realizing if it’s free, it’s not really free. That, in fact, you are the product.
You can have an absolutely wonderful broadband infrastructure, but if everybody in the country isn’t regularly using the broadband Internet, then you do not have any social or economic benefits from it at all.
Government leaders from all over the world converge here and have discussions with top industry players and CEOs, sharing their experiences and what they are doing to overcome challenges, helping us to move faster than if you were doing it on your own.
It’s about what happens with people, what are the discussions and capabilities, where do people meet other people that would never normally meet. That is why this event is meaningful.
Regulation is not science. This is more like art.
Technology is seen as truth, and AI even more so. But whenever we build a data asset, we have to interrogate, to look very critically, to have transparency.
The information society must be founded on the principles of inclusion and non-discrimination, and on the fostering of equality between men and women and the protection of children and young people, these being vulnerable segments of our societies
The network we’re dealing with today is not the network that we had yesterday. We’re dealing with an IP-based network, the skill sets involved are very different.
Today, the answer to every single question, whether you can do engineering or climate control, is usually going to be yes, sooner or later you can. So we have to think about the question of why. And we have to reset our brain to think exponentially.
Only 1% of the things that could be connected are connected. Probably even less than 1%. Most things have yet to be connected.
Governments must catalyze development with policies supporting workforce development and change, championing cloud-first, emerging technologies and digital skilling to accelerate and harness the benefits of digital technology.
A few years ago discussions at ITU events essentially had the flavour of ‘If we have competition all problems will be solved; investment will flow; competition will lower things’. Now we’re observing things are a bit more complicated. The structure, the high investment needs, the low marginal costs lead essentially not to competitive environments but oligopolistic environments.
Education for all only can be realized if you have Internet for all.
This will make TELECOM the universal telecommunication exhibition where visitors can find all the modern equipment available on the market or likely to appear in the near future
The industry must look into the future and envisage services which are affordable in local terms, and policy-makers must evolve rules that facilitate growth and expansion
Perhaps we need here philosophical and sociological studies… Thus, we could set a course which would avoid effects such as human contacts being largely replaced by electronic communication or an excess of communication which people would be unable to escape from.
It is a very good platform to meet people not only from our sector but from other sectors, SMEs and start-ups. Bringing all these people together as new value chains are being created is absolutely critical.
Partners in progress, administrations, manufacturers and users, are looking closely at ways in which good communications infrastructure can help the economic growth of other sectors of a country’s economy.
Nobody has data about the customer as much as the telcos have.
The dynamism of research workers leads them to innovate constantly, but they cannot do this if they remain isolated, and this is why the contacts which are established here, not only at the Exhibition but also during the Technical Symposium, are so useful.
Big data is inevitable but what hasn’t caught up is how people react to it and control it.
Universal personal telecommunications will allow a user to receive and send calls from any terminal, on any network, based on a unique personal number.
In some cases the first utility that people get is communications. They will get that before they get running water and sanitation. That drives a different set of behaviours.
We believe that providing affordable, high quality Internet access to the citizens of the world is the most effective tool that we have to eliminate poverty
The global telecommunications business is in a state of dynamic transition as service providers become “experience providers” and collaboration and interactions drive the next wave of growth in our industry.
5G energy efficiency is not just a business issue, but also a social responsibility.
Of all the broadband devices in the world, in 5 years time the vast majority will be mobile and will be used in low-income countries rather than highincome countries.
Step out of the mindsets of the past and look and create opportunity from the point of view of the customer
Each smart city implementation is inherently different in terms of what the government and people want, and what the issues are – you have to plan in terms of those specific issues.
SMEs play an increasingly important role in the ICT and Telecom industry chains and in market developments….within the ICT sector it is these innovative companies that are driving job creation and economic growth. As Secretary-General, I would like to recognise the critical role of SMEs, of startups and digital entrepreneurs within the ICT ecosystem
What brought us here will not keep us here
Of all the broadband devices in the world, in 5 years’ time the vast majority will be mobile and will be used in low-income countries rather than high-income countries.
The real objective of (data protection rights) is to protect the fundamental rights of people: dignity, liberty and freedom.
COVID-19 is the first pandemic in human history where knowledge has been used on a massive scale to keep people safe, connected and informed at all times.
All those who had the opportunity to visit the various stands were able to appreciate the fundamental role played by ITU in the spectacular evolution of telecommunication techniques and in the rapid expansion of the world network.
In many other countries ( broadband ) demand is being throttled by governments and regulators that get involved in effectively creating barriers rather than removing them, taxing success rather than rewarding success
If technology has to have any meaning for the people of any country it must make sure that it places women in the forefront so that they can play a critical role in the technological advancement of any country.
I could not not be here. This is the place you have to come if you want to see the latest developments in the industry sector, it’s the place to come if you wish to discuss tendencies, what needs to be done to connect the unconnected.
Industry 4.0 is not a destination, it is a journey
The dynamism of research workers leads them to innovate constantly, but they cannot do this if they remain isolated, and this is why the contacts which are established here, not only at the Exhibition but also during the Technical Symposium, are so useful.
People will not have to think about moving their information around. Any files or favourites or messages that they are interested in should just immediately show up wherever they are, whether it is the television that will be connected to the Internet, their mobile phone, their computer in their car, or their PC in all its various forms
Connectivity is becoming truly like water, like air. The total connectivity that we’re looking at in 2020 will change everything.
Soon we will have televisions that can listen, PCs that can speak, and telephones you can watch.
Our innovators, our small, start-up companies represent the future of ITU Telecom development
Broadband access is increasingly important for economic development, information access, cultural exchange, and even national security, so meeting this demand is an issue of global importance
Broadband has high capital expenditures. It’s a scale tied technology that doesn’t start to generate revenues until the network is completed and people actually are subscribing.
You can find decision makers from the whole spectrum of ICT in the same place, the right mix of decision makers and experts. I strongly believe that we cannot achieve much without collaboration and this event is a very useful tool to achieve this.
Institutional arrchitecture is not enough for cybersecurity – we also have to work on attitudinal change and utilizing more hygienic cyber practices as individuals.
We need to buy into machine to machine because there’s too much money upon the table not to do it, but then we have to find techniques to mitigate the security risk.
Broadband access is increasingly important for economic development, information access, cultural exchange, and even national security, so meeting this demand is an issue of global importance
We need a vast expansion of our communication and information network and ITU as the principle driving force behind international policy, technological development, cooperation and skills transfer, is an indispensable agent in this regard
What we are seeing here is certainly the evolution of the Internet of Things with artificial intelligence. How do we keep humans in control of such things? So this is a really important philosophical change in the way we change this technology. It’s not just about the data but it’s about what these things can do.
ICT offer an opportunity unprecedented in all of human history to end poverty
Here are more people in the world with mobile phones than there are with electricity. There are more people with mobile phones than people who have toothbrushes.
I know that the ICT industry itself is part of the problem, causing 2-3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. But at the same time, by using ICT as tools, you can reduce at least 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in other sectors.
Connectivity is the most effective tool in keeping people virtually together and physically distant.
I believe we are in front of radical change in the industry, and most of us completely underestimate the impact.
As we accelerate towards a ubiquitous high-speed future, international dialogue is essential to ensuring that we take the right decisions, learn from one another’s experiences and avoid having to reinvent the wheel
Four very difficult spectrum policy tradeoffs: Government users versus commercial, licensed versus unlicensed, terrestrial versus space, and new technologies versus old technologies.