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Name :	KAZI, Syed Sultan
Date :	August 20, 2021
Organization :	Digital Empowerment Foundation
Country :	India
Job Title :	Advisor & Senior Consultant
Contribution :	SUMMARY Due to Covid-19, the traffic of internet exchanges have increased manifold. But in actuality, the average internet and download speed has gone down by at least 12 percent. The average delay between packets when data is going from one server to other has gone up three to four times, similarly the packet loss increased by two to three times. There has been centralization of overall DNS traffic and most of this is happening through one source such as Google which makes it tough for future in Indian context. The good news for internet is that it is working well but the bad news still is the access, adoption and affordability. Access is really bad just 100 kilometers out of metropolitan cities. The internet is basically for cities. Most of services are online and have digital payment but it is not possible in rural areas with the current speed. Access to real computing is a challenge. With Covid-19, access and affordability emerged as key challenge as beyond messaging, or little browsing many were devoid of the power of internet for learning. The biggest challenge post pandemic is the fear of pandemic exploited by the cyber criminals in terms of fraud, inauthentic information regarding the oxygen cylinders, vaccination, etc. Problems of personal data being not safe has increased tremendously. In the pandemic one of the major challenges when shutdowns or lockdown were announced was since the networks are inherently designed according to consumption, mostly for central business district, this did not really cater to the kind of traffic that moved to residential from central business district. Spectrum management has emerged as an issue. When the consumption increased, there was need for more spectrum and spectrum was lying idle yet the government could not provide the resources. For the last mile challenge, role of Municipal Corporations and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) is important. Other sector like health and education should ask for spectrum as well since it is for their benefit as well to reach out to service seekers and takers. The new users have been pushed to internet are not aware of internet appropriate social behavior. One of the issues that has seen increased in rise is misinformation that maybe related to Covid. The misinformation that led to exodus of migrants. There has been hate speech against minority and children are being attacked in cybercrime. There has been rise in surveillance where rights of people are under threat even though social good is involved in it. There are internet shutdowns even though internet is lifeline. There is an increase in gender digital divide especially in education. There is lot of gender related harassment online which is making women apprehensive of using the internet. One of the important things is how to build capacity of the people so that can navigate the internet. For example, senior citizens have no knowledge of how to use Covid-19 service platforms online like COWIN in India. The challenges that have emerged out is one of not getting access to use internet resources and other is not finding compatible devices. Documenting these areas are so critical to prepare for now and future. There has been increase in traffic and this has been demanding for network providers. The challenge in country like India has been how to handle the increasing internet. There is strong need to set up internet exchange points outside main cities. These are critical because they make the traffic move efficient. Similarly the data centers are also around the main cities. There should be better distribution of data center needed which will create win win situation for everyone. One part of access people don’t seem to realize is shutdowns. India is by far one of the countries with the most shutdowns, even the national capital had shutdown. There are various reasons cited for this. It has impacted economy, education and health. One of the simplest measure is to just send a text that will inform people that internet will be shut from this time to that. A simple measure like can go long way. The people just need transparency and accountability with due processes being followed in these things. Nobody is asking for government to not have shutdown powers. Regionalising Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are the way forward to go. One of the important things is interoperability of IoTs devices if one wants to use IoTs for post pandemic recovery. In the post pandemic world there is a possibility to use AI for people’s benefits. Here, one suggestion is to work on standardization of IoTs. A global standard will work out for anyone. If countries are looking for large scale AI deployment then AI explainability is where one need to focus. Technical standard is one of the main things along with IoT interoperability standards which will minimize the divide that has been created. Pandemic forced people too indoors while much of the network is designed for mobility, to be outdoor. The in-building coverage has been a challenge for telecoms for a long time. The problem is even there is fiber in every room, the coverage is not there. Same thing can be applied to school or hospitals. This cannot be solved unless all state regulators allow this. It is not different from getting water or electricity. It is an essential service. The learning of pandemic is that digital connectivity is an essential service and a fundamental right. In the near future the important part for India is to facilitate fixed wireless access. And there is need to have ‘fiber in the air’ and not digging up the central business districts. So there needs efficient policy and regulatory requirements to facilitate this. 5G has the ability to enhance India’s use of its resources which often goes to waste because of a faulty system. A country like India will be heavily dependent on wireless networks unless the country is ready to heavily invest in optical fiber. The most important thing to remember about localizing the data is that everything is moving to the cloud. In the post pandemic world, cloud will be the way to deliver the services. There is no need to link data residency with governance and best practices of data privacy. What is needed is data regulation laws and capability building at the level of organization that are managing these assets. Gender digital divide is increasing and it is more apparent in case of women with disabilities during Covid. Gender disinformation is growing. This creates a trust deficit for women and they do not feel safe online and hesitate before posting something personal. Data is foundational to our interaction on the internet. In last couple of years, data has been developed and controlled by few large corporations in the world. There has to be oversight and this does not imply regulations only. It is about how public and citizens data is not being misused or in any way being used against their interests. There has to be public oversight on them. Digital service providers need to be involved. It has to be self-regulation. Public data has to be kept private and safe. Covid withstanding or not, internet governance issues both are national and international level are common, priority may differ. The issue is to keep internet open and free. Internet shutdown is an issue. The biggest issue is multi-lingual internet. Globally 30 to 40 percent people cannot access internet because of language. There are issues on Child Sexual Abuse Material. India’s cyber security framework has not worked well when it was needed. It is need to be looked at in terms of regulation and investment that these breaches are dealt in time. Ensuring compliance is an issue. More and more Indians in urban sector looking at privacy as a desired thing. This should be for everyone.
Attachments :	ITU Panel Discussion - Submission - DEF.docx