Towards a Global Information Society

Bridging the Digital Divide:

By Pramod DE SILVA

Today, it is not unusual to see people using mobile phones even in the remotest areas. You can browse the Internet in the most unlikely places. And if you have an Internet dongle (mobile broadband device), you can go online from almost anywhere in the world.

Satellite phones work almost anywhere on the planet. GPS devices can pinpoint one’s exact location anytime, any place. Thanks to services such as Skype, we can talk to a person on the other side of the world free.

Wall-to-wall television or online coverage means we can watch any event happening anywhere from almost any other place in the world, instantly. It is indeed a 24/7 connected world!

Sadly, not everyone is part of this global revolution. There are millions who have never made a telephone call, fixed or mobile. There are millions who do not know what the Internet is. IPads, Tabs and laptop computers are just a dream for these people. In other words, there is a vast ‘Digital Divide’ which has to be bridged.

The world still has a long way to go before this gap is bridged.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), of which nearly all UN countries are members, has long championed equal access to telecom facilities for all. Its ultimate goal is to have an ‘Information Society’ and towards this end, it has designated a special day to reflect on these issues.

The purpose of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, which fell on May 17, is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, as well as ways to bridge the digital divide.

But why May 17? It marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union. The World Telecommunication Day has been celebrated annually on May 17 since 1969.

Rise of Internet

By the early part of the 21st century, the ITU realised that a telecom day alone was not enough and that it had to take the rapid rise of the Internet into account. In November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society called upon the United Nations General Assembly to declare May 17 as World Information Society Day to focus on the importance of ICT and the wide range of issues related to the Information Society.

The General Assembly adopted a resolution stipulating that World Information Society Day shall be celebrated every year on May 17.

This decision was taken in November 2006 at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey. Thus May 17 now marks the twin World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

The ITU has noted that ICTs are “Constantly reshaping the way the world communicates while creating opportunities for a better life through long-term, sustainable development, not least among the most disadvantaged sections of our society”.

This year’s theme “Better life in rural communities with ICTs”, which was adopted in 2009 follows up on the theme for 2010: “Better city, better life with ICTs”. While cities have made rapid progress in terms of telephony and Internet penetration, the picture is not so rosy when it comes to rural areas. Hence, the significance of this year’s theme. Better telecom facilities do indeed lead to better lives.

Information technologies are important for the rural sector because they provide enhanced opportunities to generate income and combat poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy.

ICTs and related e-applications are key instruments in improving governance and rural services, such as providing community health care, safe drinking water and sanitation, education, food and shelter; improving maternal health and reducing child mortality; empowering women and the more vulnerable members of society; and ensuring environmental sustainability.

As ITU Secretary General Hamadoun I. Toure points out, half the world’s population - nearly 3.5 billion people - resides in rural districts and far flung communities, representing the poorer, less educated, and more deprived cousins of the world’s urban citizens.

Extremely poor

Among them are 1.4 billion of the world’s extremely poor people, who are also among the least connected to the benefits of ICTs. Their lives can be transformed as villages are connected to information and knowledge on the Internet - telemedicine is introduced to far-flung rural health centres and accurate weather information is made available to farmers and fishermen, to give a few examples.

Toure has called for global action to connect rural communities to the opportunities offered by ICTs.

Mobile phone penetration has already surpassed expectations - Sri Lanka alone has nearly 17 million subscribers, which is extremely good for a country with a population of 21 million. Globally, there are around five billion mobile subscribers.

However, broadband penetration for Internet access (mobile and fixed) is rather poor in most countries including Sri Lanka.

These countries do have an opportunity to leapfrog to newer technologies such as Long Term Evolution or 4G demonstrated in Colombo recently. Ensuring broadband access is one major issue that the ITU and individual governments have to address swiftly.

Fast broadband connectivity is essential to establish the information and communication highway that will IT-enable both urban centres and rural communities. Broadband telecommunications will make it possible to drive content to the remotest districts.

The ITU’s Broadband Initiative is aimed at increasing the roll-out of this state-of-the-art technology.

The World Summit on the Information Society, which met in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005, called upon countries to consider establishing national mechanisms to achieve universal access in rural areas to bridge the digital divide.

Recent events

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message for the World Information Society Day highlighted how ICT technologies are literally changing the world. “Recent events around the world, in particular in North Africa and the Middle East, have also highlighted the catalytic role that mobile phones and social media can play in galvanising public opinion. And in the aftermath of natural disasters that have struck with greater frequency and force, we have seen how these technologies are a vital part of the aid response, establishing lines of communication that can save lives, reunite families and help emergency relief reach people in need.”

Yes, however, unthinkable it may be, Internet innovations such as Facebook and Twitter help get the message across, really fast. And thanks to the convergence of the Internet and mobile phone technologies, they are available to us 24/7.

Mobile devices

It is through mobile devices that the Internet could best penetrate rural areas, because even highly advanced mobile phones (smartphones) are getting cheaper. Moreover, a message such as a tsunami alert broadcast through an SMS has a much higher chance of reaching everyone in the vulnerable areas rather than a radio or TV broadcast, because the phone is with the subscriber all the time.

Both Internet and telecom technologies are evolving and developing at a rapid pace.

It is difficult to predict what the telecom landscape will be like even five years from now. This is an exciting challenge and an opportunity.

The international community should strive to make this technology available to the widest possible population, including the poorer segments of society in the least developed nations. That will create a true Information Society.