Connecting everybody – and everything – to the benefits of the Internet: François Rancy

ITU Radiocommunication Bureau Director François Rancy sat down for an interview at the ITU Telecom World event last week in Durban, South Africa to discuss a range of topics, including how ITU is helping to connect the world.

“Smart digital development is about bringing to everybody on the planet the benefit of being connected to the Internet. And not only everybody, but also everything,” said Mr. Rancy. “The main challenge for making this possible is actually to ensure that everywhere you are on the earth, whether you are a human or a thing, you can be connected. So, this basically means that mobile networks, which are, in most countries, the main way of being connected to the Internet … need to be developed to the point where this is made possible.”

“Given the exponential increase in traffic that we have seen in the last 20 years in mobile networks, the main improvements are the ones that ensure that within the same spectrum you can increase the traffic.”

Mr. Rancy mentioned the importance of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector’s (ITU-R’s) work on international regulations and standards for the use radiofrequency spectrum needed for mobile networks. This work helps ensure that radiocommunication services run smoothly, without interference, and is of particular importance in the run-up to next year’s World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19).

“Given the exponential increase in traffic that we have seen in the last 20 years in mobile networks, the main improvements are the ones that ensure that within the same spectrum you can increase the traffic,” said Rancy.

He also stressed the importance of both increasing available spectrum as well as spectrum efficiency.

“One key area of technological innovation in this perspective is the use of MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) antennas, which means multi-beam antennas, which actually concentrate the energy toward a particular user, whether it’s a person or an object,” said Rancy.

Watch the video below to learn more:

Asked about the highlights for ITU’s radiocommunication sector at ITU Telecom World 2018, Rancy highlighted the forum sessions on spectrum, in particular for 5G, and for the WRC-19 preparations.

LEARN MORE: ITU’s work on the fifth-generation of mobile technologies