16th WSIS TalkX: 5G Technology for COVID-19 Prevention and Control

16th WSIS TalkX: 5G Technology for COVID-19 Prevention and Control - by CAICT

18 June 2020 - Virtual Session

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening - especially to my friends in China! It is a pleasure to join you for this WSIS TalkX on the important topic of 5G Technology for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

I would like to thank the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology for organising the talk and inviting me to provide some opening remarks.

The COVID-19 crisis has illustrated the power and promise of information and communication technologies - like never before. There has never been so much reliance, appreciation and emphasis placed on the important role and capacity of the technology. During lockdown, it has given billions of people around the world the ability to continue their work, studies, care of others and remain connected to their loved ones. It is amazing how resilient the networks and platforms have been despite the huge increase in demand and we really congratulate the operators and platform provides for their excellent service.

But not everyone has been able to benefit. Let’s remember that 3.6 billion people around the world are still not connected to the Internet. But I believe that the increased awareness of the importance of being connected, brought about by the Covid-19 crisis, will surely make it sooner rather than later that everyone, everywhere is connected. Only then will the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals be achieved.

And it is through mobile technology - smart phones - that most people now connect to the internet. Nearly every sector of the economy now relies on wireless technologies — from agriculture, banking and education, to health care and transportation.

The latest generation of mobile technology – 5G – offers huge benefits over the previous generation in terms of capacity – transporting a huge amount of data much faster, more reliably and securely and with much reduced latency – very important for some key applications of 5G such as healthcare and autonomous vehicles.

Unfortunately, while information technology and social media have helped keep people safe, informed, productive and connected during this unprecedented crisis, they have also been used by some to spread fear and confusion. We must do all we can to bring trusted news and facts about COVID-19 to people, and counter some of the harmful and damaging false information such as the ridiculous conspiracy theory linking 5G technology and the spread of COVID-19.

ITU maintains the international treaty on the use of the radio spectrum and satellite orbits, The Radio Regulations, and develops the related technical standards.

The ITU World Radiocommunication Conference convened late last year amended this treaty to add an additional 17.25 GHz of spectrum for 5G - 8 times more spectrum than was previously available. This harmonised spectrum will facilitate the deployment of 5G mobile networks worldwide, ensure interconnection and interoperability and reduced costs through economies of scale.

The promise of 5G is a safer, more equitable world bringing the benefits of the technology to everyone everywhere. The lessons learned from the Covid-19 crisis, the greater appreciation and use made of the technology, such as homeworking and virtual meetings and conferences, will I believe result in a more sustainable world where people will benefit from a better quality of living.
So, this WSIS TalkX is very timely and I am sure will contribute to the better understanding of the benefits and potential of 5G, in particular to help deal with pandemics like Covid-19.

Thank you very much for your support and commitment to the WSIS Forum this year. Of course the WSIS Forum 2020 will be fully virtual. It will start on 22 June and run until the week of 7-10 September. The draft agenda and programme is already online. The daily events will run from 1200 – 1500 Geneva time but there will also be regional workshops targeted towards a regional audience to be conducted in the appropriate UN language for the region and at a time suitable to the region.

WSIS Forum is the leading multi-stakeholder ICT for development event in the world, and this year’s virtual Forum is an opportunity to scale it to an even wider community and reach even more people. Please join us.

Thank you and I wish you a very interesting and enjoyable WSIS TalkX.