Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

Second Session of the Conference on Science, Innovation and ICTs of ECLAC, "Innovation in a Digital World": Keynote presentation

13 September 2016, San José, Costa Rica

Buenas tardes a todas y todos. 

Es un gran placer estar aquí en el hermoso país de Costa Rica.

I am honoured to be here with you today to address the importance of national broadband plans, policies and strategies to promote the roll-out of broadband infrastructure to the increase hyper connectivity which will be so essential to the implementation of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).

I would like to thank the organiser ECLAC for this opportunity to highlight ITU's work in this area. ECLAC kindly contributed to an ITU event in Montevideo last week so I am very pleased to be able to reciprocate today! We look forward to furthering our collaboration with ECLAC in the future.

It is a great pleasure to return to the beautiful country of Costa Rica, which is a great supporter of ITU, and which has hosted a number of ITU events including the Global Youth Summit in 2013 which resulted in a Youth Declaration that was brought to the UN General Assembly.

Last September, in New York, Costa Rica's President, Luís Guillermo Solís, addressed the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, and described the launch of Costa Rica's National Telecommunications Plan, "A Connected Society". So we are in the right place to talk about national digital strategies!

There is now much evidence proving that broadband Internet access is a driver of national competitiveness, productivity and innovation.

Equally importantly, broadband is now recognized as essential for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The United Nations General Assembly, in its ten-year review of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), highlighted the cross-cutting contribution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to the SDGs and poverty eradication, and called for close alignment between the WSIS process and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, noting that ICTs can accelerate progress towards all 17 SDGs.

This is one of the key messages of the ITU and the Broadband Commission, the subject of many reports including ITU's State of Broadband report, the 2016 edition of which will be published later this week, which gives an overview of the state of broadband globally, and the report "Planning for Progress: Why National Broadband Plans Matter", published in 2013.

So what is a National Broadband Plan?

A National Broadband Plan outlines a set of high-level policies or principles in the national approach towards infrastructure, and represents a valuable opportunity for governments to underline their commitment and determination to make broadband a national priority, their willingness to consult, and provide an explanation of their intended regulatory approaches.

ITU's "Planning for Progress" report, done in collaboration with Cisco, provided positive evidence that National Broadband Plans can significantly increase broadband penetration. The Report estimates that, all other things being equal, the introduction of a national broadband plan can lead on average to a 2.5% increase in fixed broadband penetration and 7.4% higher mobile broadband penetration.

The good news is that this message is clearly being heard. Policy-makers have responded well with strong growth in the number of countries with a national broadband policy - especially during the financial crisis – but has stabilized somewhat over the past three years. As we see clearly from this graph, the real growth period was just after the financial crisis of 2008, when a number of Governments launched National ICT Plans as part of their stimulus spending. Today, of the 189 countries for which ITU has data, the number of countries with a NBP currently stands at 151, while 38 do not have any Plan. So we can conclude that over three-quarters of all countries now have National Broadband Plans.

In the Americas region there has been enthusiastic adoption of National Broadband Plans with this region having the highest proportion of countries with Plans of any region except Europe.

In terms of what Plans cover, many Plans remain concerned with the blueprint for the roll-out of national infrastructure - 88% or nearly nine out of ten Plans focus on this. Disappointingly not very many mention accessibility (only 37%), poverty reduction and food security (only 31%) or gender (only 29%).

The permeation of ICTs into many different sectors raises various issues with respect to privacy, confidentiality and ownership of data. According to ITU, 108 countries had introduced in their Plans some kind of cybersecurity legislation by 2015, of which 82 have adopted specific arrangements to secure the protection of data and privacy at the national level (including 63 developing or transition economies). However, in Asia and Africa, only four out of every ten countries have introduced data protection and privacy laws.

It should be noted that not all countries call them Plans – some are called policies or strategies.

In fact NBPs are not a static concept, and we are starting to see Plans change focus, and adapt to technological developments. Indeed, in terms of what many Plans now include and focus on, one new trend we are seeing is Internet of Things (IoT) policies – of the 151 countries with NBPs around ten countries now have IoT policies or roadmaps in place.  IoT roadmaps extend the Plans to address the strategies for telecoms connectivity to take into account the IoT, wireless sensor networks, machine to machine etc.

From experience so far, a range of best practice strategies have been identified that countries should implement to optimize the success of their national broadband plans.

For example, plans should:

• ​adopt a technology-neutral approach that does not 'pick winners';
• contain detailed benchmarking and measurable targets to allow progress to be evaluated;
•  be reviewed and updated regularly to take into account the changing needs of a fast-moving industry, with a realistic timescale of around 3-5 years;
• take into account both demand and supply side policies for skills development, literacy and demand from schools, SMEs and more;
• be designed and maintained in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders from across industry and the policy spectrum;
• and ensure accountability in execution and progress – typically by identifying a single agency that will take the lead in implementation.

In addition, ITU collaborated with Nokia and Diffraction Analysis in a recent joint report (published in early 2016) which examined the NBPs of 35 countries and identified five key policy measures most likely to make a difference and impact broadband availability. These are

• public investment in backbone and aggregation;
• public investment in access networks; 
• a regulatory framework for infrastructure-sharing;
• subsidies for low-income communities;
• and a regulatory framework facilitating fibre roll-out.

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It found that these policy measures could increase broadband subscriptions by up to 30% and reduce prices by as much as 4% over a four-year period, compared to countries that had not introduced these measures.

For example, countries that had put in place a framework for infrastructure-sharing generally benefit from a 10% higher proportion of households with Internet access after three years, compared to countries without this policy measure.

Also that public investment in backbone and aggregation drives down average prices by US $66 per month compared to just US $17 for countries without.

Another indicator which we believe shows the success of NBPs is the very rapid pace of 4G roll-outs, compared with 3G roll-outs –100 countries had launched 4G four years after its launch in 2009, compared with only around 50 having launched 3G four years after its launch at the end of 2001. This can at least partly be attributed to Next-generation mobile being mentioned in a large number of National Broadband Plans.

As to the economic benefits of broadband, the UN Broadband Commission has estimated that a 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration alone can lead to rises in GDP of between 0.25 and 1.38 per cent, with the highest positive impacts occurring in developing countries. It also predicts that not increasing broadband to universal coverage worldwide would mean missing an opportunity to raise GDP by 12 per cent in developing regions by 2030.

In another recent study that ITU collaborated with, produced by Accenture for the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) entitled "System Transformation – How digital solutions will drive progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals" the opportunities for ICTs to address the SDGs are analysed, as well as the measures needed to overcome the current barriers to uptake. The report is available on the GeSI website.

The digital solutions analysed in the report – such as e-health, e-learning and smart buildings – it predicts will be indispensable to achieving all 17 SDGs, and have strong potential for widespread uptake to help accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.

Interestingly this report shows the tremendous revenue opportunities for ICT companies, estimated at an incredible 2.1 trillion US dollars by 2030.

Much of this revenue, it predicts, will be generated within the mobile broadband sector, which continues to show strong growth, especially in the developing world.

There is therefore much evidence to suggest that NBPs make a difference, and are contributing to the growth of broadband around the world. Although we need to remember that there are still 3.9 billion people who have yet to get connected with any form of regular Internet access, there are positive signs as I have shown, especially since half of all mobile phone connections are now broadband-enabled.

Indeed, smartphones and broadband are no longer a luxury but an essential utility that can, and will, make a huge difference to both national competitiveness, and the lives of citizens.

In closing, therefore, let me say that we are confident that in those countries which practice these measures, and invest in broadband as a national priority, we shall see noticeable improvements in national broadband penetration, and with it human capital with digital skills – ensuring economic success in what may be the most important industry ecosystem we have ever known.

Thank you very much for your attention.