Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR): Keynote Address

13 September 2016, San José, Costa Rica

Buenos días a todas y todos. 

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

Good morning distinguished colleagues,
ladies and gentlemen,

It's a great pleasure to be here. I would like to thank the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) for inviting ITU to speak to you this morning at this World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR), and we look forward to closer collaboration with IFIP and WITFOR.

I am going to talk to you about ITU's work on helping the roll-out of broadband and bringing the benefits for the information society to all the world citizens. This will be essential if the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda is to be met.

I think all of us here today agree with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which recognizes that "the spread of information and communication technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies".

Today, ICTs and broadband are already empowering billions of individuals around the world by helping them make better-informed decisions, by providing access to education and health, and by delivering services such as mobile banking, e-government and social media networks, among many others.

In the developing world in particular we are seeing some incredible success stories, where smartphone capabilities are now being used in applications ranging from the detection and mapping of disease outbreaks, to the proliferation of educational resources everywhere, to delivering digital financial inclusion to millions of the world's unbanked.

But these success stories only apply to less than half the world's people – because only 47% are online, and there are still 3.9 billion people offline. The situation is even more dramatic in the 48 UN-designated Least Developed Countries, the LDCs, where 85% of the population is offline.

It is clearly essential that we bring the benefits of broadband to all the world's people. We are no longer talking about a luxury – broadband access and smartphones are now an essential utility and enabler of sustainable development, and is vital to help us achieve each and every one of the 17 SDGs.

ICTs and broadband need to be on par with roads, bridges and other basic services and utilities, as recognized in the Istanbul Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries adopted at the LDC IV conference in 2011.

Earlier this year, at the 2016 session of ITU Council, the United Nations Special Adviser on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, David Nabarro, addressed our membership, noting that "The new development agenda is universal, indivisible, must leave no one behind, and must address the digital divide, otherwise we won't succeed. These goals cannot be realized without everybody being connected".

Broadband will be crucial in helping us to address the many issues raised in the UN's report on SDG progress, released in July, which includes some startling statistics:

• The 60 million children of primary school age who are not attending school today;
• The 38 million deaths annually from non-communicable diseases – and the 6 million children under the age of 5 who die every year, mostly from easily-preventable causes;
• The 30% of urban populations globally that live in slum-like conditions; and
• The 950 million people globally who live with no means of sanitation whatever.

​So there are many challenges. We need to do more to get the world connected, and to bring the benefits of broadband to people wherever they live, and whatever their means. We need to make sure that hospitals are connected to outlying clinics, and that clinics are connected to patients. We need to make sure that universities are connected to schools, and that schools are connected to students of all ages. And we need to make sure that governments are connected to the people they serve.

At ITU we are working hard to address the issue, working specifically on:

• ​The necessary spectrum allocations, especially for future mobile services, harmonised at a global level to ensure costs are reduced through economies of scale;
• International technical standards for networks and applications to ensure interoperability of equipment and networks produced by different manufacturers;
• And promoting best practice policies that create an enabling environment that facilitates and encourages innovation while still avoiding market dominance and ensuring consumer protection.

At ITU, we also continue to work and support initiatives to help leverage the power of government and private sector/public sector dialogue and partnership.

With ICTs permeating all walks of life and business, the challenge is to work together with many diverse interests and stakeholders that previously worked in their own isolated sector. This is true at the national, regional and international level. Only by working together, exchanging best practices and successful innovation, pooling resources and coordinating our progress will we achieve the goals of the 2030 development agenda.

Distinguished colleagues,

At the national level, broadband needs to be an integral part of national sustainable development strategies, and at ITU we firmly believe that all countries should have a national broadband plan in place.

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 clearly in the right place today to talk about national broadband plans.

There is evidence to suggest that national broadband plans can make a real difference, and a joint study undertaken by ITU and Cisco in 2013 suggested that 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.

We are pleased to see that this region has been enthusiastic in adopting national broadband plans, with the Americas region having the second highest proportion of countries with plans after Europe.

Ladies and gentlemen,

When adopting a national broadband plan, monitoring is an important element to be integrated. It is essential to assess and analyze which approaches work and which do not. Having measurable information on supply and use of broadband allows governments to judge whether plans achieve the objectives set, to reassess priorities, and to identify areas where corrective measures are needed.

On this subject, I would like to refer you to an excellent chapter in ITU's 2015 edition of the Trends in Telecommunication Reform, which provides detailed information on monitoring the implementation of broadband plans and strategies.

The quality of regulation is also a key success factor to the development of vibrant digital economies. Based on evidence produced with the ICT Regulatory Tracker, the choice of regulatory intervention – or more precisely the combination of a handful of regulatory measures – is closely associated with a catalytic effect on market take-up.

With respect to mobile-broadband penetration countries that have implemented the following five regulatory measures systematically outperform countries lacking some or all of them:

a national broadband plan; competition in both the mobile sector and international gateways; infrastructure sharing; mobile number portability; and band migration.

As of the end of 2013, countries having applied this 'winning formula' had an average national penetration rate of close to 60% compared to a world average of 27%.

In a similar way, fixed broadband markets also seem to have their 'winning formula'. The top-five measures are:

Again, a national broadband plan; open competition in wireline broadband technologies; an advanced licensing framework (featuring either unified licenses or a general authorization regime); an infrastructure sharing policy; and fixed number portability.

Countries which have applied this winning formula have achieved, on average, fixed broadband penetration which is 13% to 16% higher than the global average.

Within reasonable limitations, this quantitative evidence suggests that best-practice regulation does matter and both the design and the effective enforcement of regulatory frameworks are essential for broadband markets to thrive.

Distinguished colleagues,

Let me close by once again emphasizing the vital importance of collaboration in applying ICTs to drive progress towards meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. ITU has a broad membership of 193 governments, over 700 private sector entities, civil society, other international organisations, and over 130 universities. This is an excellent platform to take this work forward. In addition, we are looking at ways to facilitate participation or small and medium enterprises, and start-up companies, since this is where much of the innovation we need is coming from.

ITU looks forward to working with you and others to make sure we make the world a better place for all.

Thank you for your attention.