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Mr. Hamadoun Toure, ITU Secretary-General
Mr. Paulo Campos, Chairman of the Forum
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honor for me to be here today representing Indonesia
to deliver my comments on the report of the Secretary General
and to express our views with regards to the ICT and
telecommunication policy making.
Ladies and gentlemen,
First of all let me express my gratitude to the International
Telecommunication Union for convening us here in a beautiful
city, Lisbon of Portugal, to exchange views and share knowledge
as well as experience on the many important issues that arise
from the current and rapid development of ICT and
telecommunication environment.
This forum surely not only enables us to expand and refine
our expertise in defining and formulating the most suitable and
appropriate policies to regulate the ICT and telecommunication
industry in each member state, but also strengthens the good
cooperation among ITU Member States and Sector Members.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As set out in the Secretary General’s report, I note that we
must underline the urgency of convergence. To quote from the
report, I must admit that convergence combined with the
evolution to all IP-based wireless and wired NGNs provide both
tremendous opportunities for the telecommunication industry and
significant challenges to member states. In its main assessment,
convergence is identified as the main factor for change for the
ICT sector and the society at large.
The core vision of convergence that should be shared by the
government and other players in ICT/telecommunication industry
is that, with the implementation of converged media and
communication technologies and markets, every user would be able
to connect everywhere and anytime with access to adaptive and
high quality contents and communication services, in a safe and
conducive environment.
In reality, NGN has been initiated in Indonesia and is
developing rapidly, and therefore it is essential that we adjust
the current overall regulatory frameworks to facilitate the
increased trends of convergence.
I hope you all would agree with me that one of the main
challenges faced by the policy makers is to ensure that the set
of regulatory frameworks influencing converging sectors
complement each other and provide legal certainty. The purpose
is to respond to rapid technological changes in a way that
encourages competition, unites the internal market and benefits
users.
Therefore, convergence should be discussed with a purpose to
achieve a common understanding of current trends and to address
critical questions relevant for convergence, such as networks,
services and users.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Consequently, convergence requires the realization of Next
Generation Networks (NGNs), which allow a greater integration of
services on a single network.
It is a common understanding that NGNs provide the technical
underpinning of convergence, representing a single transport
platform on which the carriage of pr
eviously distinct service types such as video, voice and data
converges together with new and emerging services and
applications.
While the ideas of convergence and migration to NGNs have
become the matters of urgent drives, I must put forward that the
developing countries may face additional challenges. A real
challenge that has to be overcome as soon as possible is the
need to establish a basic high capacity national backbone
network, as an urgent requirement for a smooth introduction of
NGNs as well as broadband access. It also assists in lessening
the requirements for valuable frequency spectrum and enhancing
the efforts of narrowing the gap between developed and
developing countries; including between urban and rural areas.
Indonesia has realized that high capacity backbone networks
are very important to implement the NGNs. Therefore, we have
designed a project called Palapa Ring Project to connect all the
provinces and districts in Indonesia.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Representing Indonesia as a fellow ITU member state and
developing country, I hope I may call for all delegates gathered
in this forum to bring in any solution for all challenges that
may arise from the era of convergence and NGNs. I am certain
that this forum will be most beneficial for developing countries
in terms of beating the challenges and turning them into an even
opportunity for all countries.
Thank you.
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