Lanka’s mobile penetration higher than global average – ITU Secretary General

By Dhaneshi YATAWARA

The 12th Global Symposium for Regulators concluded last week after successful three-day-sessions. International regulators from the telecommunication sector as well as blue chip companies met face to face to set up rules of the game for fair play.

“I can tell you that worldwide we have managed to ensure that every country places telecommunication and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the same level as the need for water, electricity or transport systems,” said Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Dr. Hamadoun Toure, speaking to the media.

The Symposium was organised by the ITU in association with the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

Dr. Hamadoun Toure, appreciating the support of the political leadership of Sri Lanka for the telecommunication industry, said that if there is no positive support from the political sphere, the policies will not be directed towards the right direction.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q: Has the gathering of global regulators been a success?

A: When you bring regulators together, you always expect professional play. These people are top level participants. We have over 100 countries and over 400 delegates present at the symposium. All bring here their share of experiences, good as well as bad.

Our philosophy is simple. We are in this information society today and you will be ashamed to make a mistake due to lack of information, or reinvent something which already has been invented by someone else as a result of the lack of information. Information is the only thing which multiplies when you share it. One of the reasons I chose this field is because when right information is shared, all come out as winners.

We have experienced regulators here. In this field there is nothing as big countries or small ones. All countries, whether young or old, have to face the challenges that come with the technology which is new to everyone. Even a small developing country can achieve a vision that everyone else will adopt.

The Global Regulators Industry Dialogue (GRID), which is an integral part of the Global Symposium for Regulators, brought CEOs, directors and high officials of the industry together for discussions with the regulators. This is like bringing the players and referees on one platform and discussing the rules of the game together to make it a fair game. Regulators will be there as referees, but without the companies who are the players there will be no game. At a game, no one wants the referee too visible in the field. If he is blowing the whistle too much, the referee is too visible. The regulators should not be felt too much in the field, but should have a strong rule to control the players to make sure that they don’t play foul. And that has been very dynamic in this industry.

So far, the ICT industry is still holding strong despite the economic crisis, because there is good regulation in it. It is not strong-handed regulation, but is enough to properly regulate the sector. The financial sector went through a crisis due to the total lack of regulations. We monitor this field continuously to ensure good practice among the players.

ITU’s role

Q: What was the role of the ITU in Sri Lanka?

A: We took steps to establish the National Telecommunication for Emergency for disaster communication through workshops in Colombo recently. This is a very important topic, especially in the Asian region, to safeguard against natural disasters.

In 2008 we held a coordination for satellite communication. I met the President of Sri Lanka in 2008 and at the time we much appreciated the work he was doing for the ICT sector. President Mahinda Rajapaksa was appreciated by our committee with the silver medal for his contribution to the development of the ICT sector of the country. I came to Sri Lanka to personally deliver the medal to the President. I can say that he is very supportive.

Telecommunication regulators cannot survive without political support. That is very important. There is intense competition here.

Normally, private companies always want transparency. If there is no positive support from the political sphere, the policies will not be directed towards the right direction.

I request him now to give equal support to broadband technology. Because of his support in the past, Sri Lanka has achieved a high mobile penetration today. The next step is broadband. In Sri Lanka broadband penetration is still low, but it is higher than the international average. LTE, the next generation of telecommunication, is also being tested here.

We also had one issue which is particular to this country. We had special training for Supreme Court judges. They were trained on the challenges of Information and Communication Technology issues. Most of the time, when there are Court cases or appeals that go to a high level, they need to understand the challenges of the industry to make a better ruling. Otherwise, it will be unknown territory for the decision makers. They would sometimes rely on experts, but there is a possibility that the experts can be biased as well. We trained judges and officials of the Court of Appeal and official of the Attorney-General’s Department on these issues. This is very important as legislation is key in driving a policy.

Even though technology always comes first, we always need to have a policy so that the technology can be widespread. We had a number of workshops on Next Generation Networks (NGN) in 2010, and another workshop with the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation and the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka.

A school community initiative was established here. At first we initiated it in only in 25 schools in Sri Lanka. The second round is taking place countrywide. The Government saw its success.

We don’t have programs where a large percentage of our monetary support goes as payments to experts or consultants. That is not in our philosophy. The equipment we give a country will totally belong to that country. The contribution of ITU expertise will not be counted in the cost.

Projects reported at end

The ITU is supposed to assist developing countries. So we make sure that the funds go where they belong. We only report the project at its end and not when we start it. Sometimes you see a lot of noise being made about many projects starting which will never see an end. People wait for the opportunity and nothing happens. We will be lying to our own people if we do so.

We always inform the other UN agencies about our projects so that they also can contribute to make the project a success. When such intensive incorporation is there, people receive something meaningful.

Q: How can telecommunications be a transformational technology especially for the developing world?

A: Earlier, electricity was the driving force for development to enter the villages. However, today, because of the mobile phone use, electricity comes in to villages. With more mobile phones entering the villages, the need for electricity arises as people need to charge their phones. This a very key trend that we see worldwide. That is a very positive trend because electricity is a basis for the development of any country.

I can tell you that worldwide we have managed to ensure that every country places telecommunication and ICT at the same level as water, electricity or transport systems. It is a basic human need. We understand that there is a relation between the GDP growth of a country and its telephone penetration. Accordingly, a 10 percent penetration of telephones or the presence of mobile phones will increase the GDP by 0.7 percent. Some people could say that this is the other way around, and it will always be a chicken and egg situation – which one comes first. Is it the 0.7 percent GDP driving the increase in mobile telephone penetration or is it the 10 percent growth in mobile phone penetration driving the 0.7 percent GDP? We have seen good business models that really drive the take-up of mobile phones. We are always aware of the savings a mobile phone can bring to a person, a family or a community. The alternative to a phone call, to deliver good news or bad, was somebody travelling for days with the message. A person would spend too much time, money and energy in such a situation and with the mobile phone penetration in to society the valuable money, time and energy were saved, with an increase in the living standards. With telephones you can save lives today. In this sense, I think it had a very good impact on the lives of people.

Q: As almost all countries are moving towards digital platforms for broadcasting and communications, how do you face the challenge of re-assigning the analog spectrum in a manner that benefits society and countries?

A: It is a good question and merits an indepth answer, considering different angles. The first challenge for us is what we want to do. Whether it is to move from one society (analog) to another (digital)? From one society where information is single to a society where it has multiplied.

Today, even a child doing homework uses a computer and is online with open access to information; he is on Facebook, Twitter and watches television on the computer as well. This is now a part of us. For that to happen, you need complete cultural change.

For all this to be implemented, you need leadership. I will call it ‘who dares to dream and dream for the benefit of the people and share the dream’. When the dream is shared, it becomes a vision. So, there should be a vision and the legal and regulatory framework will follow, because we are in an industry that is profit-making.

The private sector can make profits anywhere in this field. I have seen this in the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. They receive a huge tourist population each year which is more than their own population. They are customers too. So when a company receives a telephone licence, the world is the customer, not only the country.

There is nothing wrong in earning profits. In the process jobs are created. People’s lives become faster and more sociable.

They have better interactions in families and jobs. This improves the way of life. This is where the regulator’s role comes in. Prices will go down when competition comes into play. A regulator has to see three parameters – i.e. prices – are they going down? Is the service quality going up? Is coverage moving to the country side as well? If any of these three are going in the wrong direction, it is time to bring in a new player. This is quite important as technology is always ahead of us. And people will continue to demand more.

There are more challenges to face in this information society. Links to social networking and social behaviour are new fields that we have to deal with. Earlier people communicated over the phone, but today one would say ‘text me’ or ‘drop me an e-mail’. Even family members living in the same house would text or e-mail each other with no conversation. It is a different culture. These are the behavioural changes that need to be dealt with.

However, on a more serious note, one of the things that are important is cyber security. It is a big challenge. Because unfortunately, just like in the real world, there are criminals in the cyber world too.

And they are invading the privacy of children and businesses. These are really destroying the society. And one needs to stop them. People think they are more free in the cyber world than in the real world.

Actually, the same rules and ethics should apply in reality. And sometimes they do not know the limit of that freedom. We see some offensive unnecessary videos lately, on YouTube, which unnecessarily created chaos in the world, but the cyber world is a strong lobby.

It is a big challenge for me as well as for the ITU. I am being assigned to coordinate global efforts for cyber security. When someone talks about cyber security, some would yell that it is penetrating into other’s privacy. However, no one needs to arrest a person without any offensive matter in his cyber space. When monitoring for contents of criminal nature, obviously we would come across contents without any criminal nature. We only need to trace the criminals. So the privacy issues and ethical issues are very heavily debated.

What is more challenging is that I see a new cold war starting in the cyber space where countries are accusing each other. That is a big challenge for us as cyber space knows no borders. What is the definition of crime in the new context? We created a global cyber security agenda to try and brainstorm on their approaches. I saw many ideological fights over it. So I thought we will never see an end.

While we waste time talking, some people are working against our children and businesses. So I was trying to find a common ground and that would be children. We created a system called Child Online Protection – COP. Children are important for everyone. They are the biggest users of the Net and the most vulnerable, capable of giving information about them and their families to strangers on outer space. If a good network can work successfully for children globally, it can protect everything in cyber space – and can be expanded easily.

The final challenge would be to see a potential for cyber war between countries, which we have not seen before. We have seen certain malware conceived by some countries against others. That will start a world war, unfortunately. Another country can clone the malware and attack some other country.

We are talking about a cyber peace treaty. One day I hope it will see the light of day.

I hope that it will be a treaty with peace and would involve every country – with governments, the private sector and civil society. We need to commit ourselves to protect everyone. Protection does not need to be totally penetrating into privacy – so there has to be a limit as well.

Q: How do you see the Sri Lankan situation?

A: I see a great improvement. When I came almost three years ago, I saw barricades right outside the hotel I stayed in. For me it was a disturbance, especially after living in a country such as Switzerland. However, today the mindset is completely different.

This is an achievement in less than three years for the country. Youngsters may not even realise the luxury that they enjoy now. It is the older generation that will feel it. Let’s continue to work so that they continue to be in that mode.

[Sri Lanka’s mobile market]

Sri Lanka has a relatively high mobile-cellular penetration which has more than doubled from around 27 percent in 2006 to over 87 percent by end-2011. By the beginning of 2012, the country’s mobile penetration level was higher than the world and regional average. The majority – almost 90 percent - of mobile subscriptions in the country are prepaid. The percentage of the population covered by a mobile signal stood at 98 percent at the beginning of 2011, with virtually all Sri Lankans now covered by a mobile signal.

Sri Lanka’s cellular prices are among the lowest in the world. The regulatory authority is proactive in a highly competitive market with five operators. Sri Lanka ranks 14th globally in the 2011 mobile-cellular prices. Sri Lanka has a ‘budget telecom model’ – a business model based on low cost, low prices and high volume. This type aims at profitability even when serving low-income areas and populations.

Sri Lanka has a dynamic broadband market. The country was the first in the region to introduce 3G mobile broadband networks, which operated commercially as early as 2006. Both the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission and the ICT Agency for Sri Lanka have made broadband access a policy focus.

Yet broadband penetration – both fixed and mobile – is relatively low and remains behind the regional and developing country average. With the infrastructure in shape, Sri Lanka has the potential to increase broadband use once customers recognise the benefits of high speed connections.