INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION


 

THE FUTURE TREND OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES  AND THE 
RIGHT TO COMMUNICATE

Dr Pekka Tarjanne
Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union
Keynote Address, The 21st Century Global Information Society, Jakarta, 12 June 
1997

Mr President,
Honourable Ministers,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure and an honour for me to address this distinguished 
symposium. As you may know, I have flown here from Singapore where I 
opened the ITU’s  ASIA TELECOM 97 Exhibition and Forum.  I will tell you a 
little more about ASIA TELECOM later on in my speech, but let me say that I 
am delighted that I was able to find time in my schedule to be with you today.  

I am very pleased to be back in Indonesia, not only because of the natural 
beauty of your country and your traditional hospitality, but also because of the 
example Indonesia sets in what can be achieved if there is common 
commitment - between the State, the banks and private firms - to improving 
the level of telecommunication networks and services.  Indonesia has 
recognized that successful national development and telecommunications are 
linked and that if it is to attain its ambitious goal of status as a Newly 
Industrializing Country (NIC), telecommunications must play a pivotal role in 
releasing the enormous potential of its large and diverse population.

Over the past thirty years, the ITU has been pleased to play a part -- a small 
part perhaps, but hopefully important nonetheless -- in Indonesia’s 
telecommunications success story.  Although the ITU is more than 130 years 
old, development is still a relatively young activity, and one that hopefully still 
has a lot of growing to do.  In this respect, there is much to be learned from 
the long and successful collaboration that has taken place between the ITU 
and Indonesia.  This collaboration has produced many notable results, 
particularly in the area of human resources management and development.  
We at the ITU are particularly proud of the role we have played supporting the 
establishment and development of the Bandung training centre.  It is our 
largest human resource project anywhere in the world, and in many ways our 
most successful. 

It is also worth noting that PLANITU, an ITU-developed computerized network 
planning tool, was introduced in Indonesia with ITU assistance and that it has 
been successfully used for planning the telecommunications networks of the 
two largest cities in Indonesia, Jakarta and Surabaya.  This collaboration 
continues with the planned upgrading of PT Telkom’s system to the Windows 
NT version of the PLANITU software.

The vital role of the ITU
Many of you already know this, but it bears repeating: Without the ITU – the 
International Telecommunication Union – many of the daily activities we take 
for granted simply could not happen. When we watch television, make a 
telephone call, send a fax, or fly safely around the world, we depend on the 
ITU’s work.
At the ITU we define and adopt the telecommunications standards that allow 
fax machines to talk to each other, for example. We also regulate the use of 
the international  radiofrequency spectrum – allowing aircraft communications 
to be interference-free, and television signals to be sent and received. And, 
last but not least, we further telecommunications development around the 
world, particularly in the developing nations.
The ITU is the largest and most influential telecommunications organization in 
the world. We now have 187 Member States and over 400 Sector Members, 
including industry giants such as AT&T, Intel, Matsushita, Microsoft, NTT, 
Siemens and Sony. Indonesia is well represented both directly as a Member 
State through the DGPT (Directorate General of Posts and 
Telecommunications), and indirectly through Sector Members such as  PT 
INDOSAT, PT SATELINDO and PT Telekom
When we go about our daily business it is all too easy to forget that the 
international telecommunications network is the largest and most complex 
ever man-made object. The network keeps us in touch, brings us world news 
and underpins the global economy.
When I first became involved with the communications industry twenty five 
years ago, there was much talk about ‘the information age’ and how we would 
soon be living in a ‘global village’.  Nothing much changes!  The information 
revolution has always been subject to hype.  We are now so used to hearing 
how the new technologies will transform all our lives that we take it for 
granted.  I have no doubt that there is a great deal of truth in many of the 
claims made about the coming information society.  
However, what is far from certain is the speed of this revolution, the manner 
in which it will develop and who will participate.  That is why I want to 
concentrate in my talk today on an issue which is dear to my heart and is at 
the core of the ITU’s activities - the right to communicate.  It is my belief that 
universal access to basic communication and information services is a 
fundamental human right.
Universal Access to Basic Communication and Information Services 

Of course, the idea that there should be universal access to basic 
communication and information services is not new.   The 1984 report of the 
Independent Commission for Worldwide Telecommunications Development 
(the Maitland Commission) identified the "missing link" in telecommunications 
development as the gap, in access to basic telephone service, between 
developed and developing countries.  Sir Donald Maitland, the Commission 
Chairman, illustrated this gap with the famous quote that there were at that 
time, more telephones in Tokyo than in the entire African continent.

There is a big difference between developed and developing countries in 
"teledensity" -- the number of telephone lines for each 100 people. In the 
richest countries, there are 45 or more phone lines for each 100 people. In 
the poorest countries -- mainly in sub-Saharan Africa - there is less than one. 
The developing countries of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe fall 
somewhere in-between.

In 1984, the Maitland Commission recommended that by the year 2000 
everyone in the world should have ready access to at least basic telephone 
service. In 1983, 90% of the world's people had access to only 10% of the 
world telephone lines. Today, the situation is better. This same 90% have 
doubled their share, and now have about 20% of the world's telephone lines. 
Nevertheless, more than half of all households around the world still have no 
telephone.

In short, while the goal set by the Maitland Commission has not yet been 
reached, access to basic telephone services for the inhabitants of some low 
income countries is increasing rapidly.  So while we have made some 
progress in closing the telecommunications development gap identified in 
1984, we still have a very long way to go before there is equal access 
everywhere in the world to basic telephone service.
Closing the gap - lessons from the Asia-Pacific

The Asia-Pacific region has probably gone further than any other in narrowing 
the telecommunications gap and consequently has much to teach us in 
extending this experience to other developing regions of the world. The Asia-
Pacific region is now the world’s largest single market for telecommunications 
products and services. Investment in the region's telecommunications market 
over the next five years is expected to exceed US$ 300 billion. The region is 
also the fastest growing and most dramatically changing on the planet. For 
instance, the number of cellular subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region has 
already overtaken that of Western Europe and is forecast to outstrip the USA 
this year. 

What is encouraging for the other Asian economies is that the transition from 
a low to a high teledensity is becoming quicker over time. The OECD 
countries of the regions took between 10-35 years to move from a teledensity 
of 10 to 30, the four dragons did so in six to ten years, while countries like 
Indonesia and Malaysia seem set to complete the transition even faster.  The 
evidence shows that:

*	The telecommunications gap between the developed and the developing 
economies can be closed given the right pre-conditions for growth. 

*	The transition phase between low and high teledensity economies is 
becoming quicker and easier over time.

Why is the growth process speeding up?  There would seem to be a number 
of possible reasons:

*	Technological change, and in particular the introduction of digital 
switching, has made rapid development of capacity much easier.  The 
dynamic Asian economies have been able to jump straight from manually-
operated to digital exchanges, thus by-passing  the semi-automatic stage 
of network development.  In Indonesia, Hongkong, and Malaysia, for 
instance, exchange line digitization is above 75 per cent;

*	The dynamic Asian economies already had an industrial structure that 
depended heavily upon telecommunications-intensive activities such as 
consumer electronic manufacturing or services whereas the OECD 
Member countries were still largely agricultural, resource-based 
economies when they started the transition;

*	There is a learning curve whereby the "lessons" of a successful 
investment strategy in one country can be applied in others, given the right 
economic preconditions and policy framework.  There is also strong 
consumer demand for some new technologies such as mobile phones or 
fax terminals and this demand has been spurred by advertising and by 
tourism.

Towards the global information society

But even as one communication gap between developed and developing 
countries is beginning to close, a new and more dangerous gap is opening 
up.  

Despite the hype, we are in the midst of a communication and information 
revolution, complemented by an explosive growth in knowledge.  Information 
and knowledge have become the primary factor in societal and economic 
development.  As generic technologies, information and communication 
technologies (ICT) permeate and cut across all areas of economic, social, 
cultural and political activity. 

The convergence of telecommunication, computer and broadcasting 
technology is revolutionizing the production, distribution and consumption of 
information of all kinds -- from mass entertainment, to social, cultural and 
educational services, to scientific research and business. In the process they 
affect all social institutions, perceptions and thought processes.  

Globally the information and communication sector is already expanding at 
twice the rate of the world economy.  Decreasing costs of increasingly 
powerful, reliable hardware and software, as well as the fact that much 
hardware has become a desktop item, will continue to drive the use of 
information and communication technologies, facilitating access by ever wider 
segments of society.  But this tendency can have profound benefits only if 
gains in physical access are accompanied by capacities to exploit these 
technologies for individual and societal development through production and 
dissemination of appropriate content and applications.

The effect of the increasing pace of change in communication and information 
technologies, combined with the globalization of trade, is causing 
industrialized societies to evolve towards a global information society in which 
all human activities are increasingly dependent on electronic information 
infrastructures.  The economic and social effects of the use of these 
technologies are many and varied. Some will be positive; others will be 
negative. Striking the right balance will be neither automatic or easy. 

Numerous far-reaching programmes are already being implemented to take 
advantage of the potential economic benefits of these technologies in terms 
of economic growth, employment and resource management. At the same 
time, there is a growing concern about the impact of these technologies on 
existing jobs and the future availability of work. 

The Global Information Infrastructure - the Future of Communications?
It is more than three years since US Vice-President Gore proposed, at the 
ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference in Buenos Aires, 
that the nations of the world should cooperate in building what he called a 
“Global Information Infrastructure”, or GII. Today, his vision is widely shared  
In fact, dozens of national initiatives have been announced around the world, 
and the GII has been the subject of ministerial meetings and numerous other 
conferences.
It is no exaggeration to say that every country has a slightly different view of 
what the GII is, what it will do, and how it should be built.  Europe has put the 
emphasis on economic and social issues, such as employment and 
competitiveness, in “the global information society”.  Japan, on the other 
hand, has stressed the theme of “reforms toward the intellectually creative 
society of the twenty-first century”.  Singapore sees itself as an “intelligent 
island”.  Indonesia’s vision for its N11 Nusantara-21, can be considered the 
information era’s corollary to the PALAPA domsat network initiated in the 
1970s - the communication web linking all corners of the archipelago.  Every 
country, in fact almost every speaker, has a different point of view.
Should we therefore conclude that the GII is nothing more than a catchy 
slogan? Personally, I would hesitate to draw such a negative conclusion.  It 
seems to me that  whether we talk about information highways or the GII, we 
are talking about a common set of goals, about a common set of ideals, about 
a common set of problems.
How will the communication networks of the future differ from those of the 
past?  To begin with, I think there is widespread agreement on the technical 
aspects of this question. The networks of the future will be digital.  They will 
be intelligent.  They will be defined and controlled by software.  They will offer 
high transmission capacity and flexible bandwidth.  They will have open 
architectures so that they can be easily accessed and interconnected.
Second, there is also consensus on how the communication services 
provided by these networks will differ from traditional services.  They will 
convey information from every possible source -- by putting us in touch with 
other human beings, by tapping the world’s rapidly expanding reservoirs of 
electronically stored information, by sensing what is happening in natural and 
man-made environments.  This information will be presented to us in all its 
richness; the networks of the future will connect with our senses of sight, 
sound and touch, and perhaps with our other senses as well. The services 
provided by the networks of the future will be personal, tailored to the needs 
of individual users.  They will allow us to interact with other information 
sources -- whether they are people, databanks or environmental sensors -- in 
ways not previously possible.  And they will be mobile, available at any time 
and perhaps in any place.
Third, there is also a widely shared vision of how these networks and services 
will be applied. In addition to providing an almost unimaginable range of 
business and entertainment services in response to market demands, it is 
widely assumed that education, health care and other public services can be 
provided by communication networks. Many social problems could be 
alleviated through the application of new communication and information 
technologies; for example, the elderly and the disabled could be integrated 
much better into social life through applications such as distance learning and 
remote medical consultations.  But as these new technologies become more 
widely used, they also give rise to new social and cultural issues in connection 
with new lifestyles, working relations and leisure habits that are being created 
through their use. 

The revolution in communication and information technology will have 
profound implications for all of those involved in the creation, production and 
dissemination of information, whether they are involved in scientific research, 
education, cultural, entertainment or commercial pursuits. On the one hand, 
this revolution will put at their disposal powerful new creative tools and means 
of reaching their audiences, whether they are local or global. On the other 
hand, this revolution raises new issues related to the ownership, control, 
diversity and flows of information.  If all of these visions materialize, it is 
certainly the case that every aspect of life will be transformed. 
This, in a few words, summarizes the consensus that I see emerging around 
the world on the communication networks and services of the future.  It is an 
inspiring vision.  The question is, how can we realize it?
It is sometimes thought that there is a magic solution to building the GII -- for 
example that the answer is the Internet, or that it is Broadband ISDN, or that it 
is interactive cable television, or that it is future generation wireless 
technologies.  Personally, I do not believe that there is a magic solution of this 
kind -- that some “revolutionary technology” or “killer application” will conquer 
the world.  It is much more likely that the GII will be a “network of networks” 
and that it will evolve out of existing technologies and services such as the 
Internet, just as communications has always done.
Ladies and gentlemen, many of the topics I have talked about today are 
currently the subject of much fruitful discussion at Asia TELECOM 97 in 
Singapore. Asia TELECOM 97 is the fourth Asia TELECOM event to be 
staged by the ITU in Singapore since 1985.  This year’s Forum theme, ‘The 
Asian Routes Towards the Global Information Society’, is bringing together 
more than 1500 participants and speakers providing an excellent opportunity 
to explore how the benefits of the global Information Society can be 
harnessed for everyone in the region. In addition, more than 30 000 
telecommunication professionals from over 90 countries will visit the 
exhibition.  The Forum and Exhibition will continue for another two days - so if 
you haven’t already been, it’s not too late for you to attend!


The 'Right to Communicate' in the Global Information Society' 

There is another comment I would like to make about the concept of the 
Global Information Infrastructure.  As I have said today, I think there is an 
emerging consensus on what the words “information infrastructure” mean, as 
well as on the kinds of services that will be provided by the networks of the 
future.  However, it seems to me that we have a much less clear idea of what 
the word “global” means.  Will the GII be global in the sense of carrying all 
kinds of information?  Or will it be global in the sense of being accessible from 
at least some locations in most or all countries?  Or will it be global in the 
sense of providing universal service to people everywhere, from the remotest 
villages to the most crowded urban cores? 
There appears to be a tendency to assume that the GII will be global in all 
these senses, and that it will provide access to the world’s information 
resources to the poorest countries and people in the world as well as to the 
richest.  This is a laudable vision.  But it is not realistic under present 
conditions.

People with access to the "information infrastructures" resulting from the 
convergence I have talked about will be the "information haves" of the 21st 
century. At present, these people are few in number and live almost 
exclusively in the richest countries. The vast majority of the world's population 
-- for whom the telephone is still a luxury -- will be "information have nots". 
The gap between developed and developing countries -- between the 
"information haves and have nots" -- will almost certainly be greater in the 
near future than it is today.

Moreover, the communication revolution I have described raises new 
questions about fundamental human rights, such as freedom of thought and 
expression, the right to privacy and the protection of intellectual property, the 
right to participate in political life, and the right to communicate.

Like the idea of universal access to basic communication and information 
services, the 'right to communicate' is not a new concept.  Philosophers and 
social scientists have long recognized that communication is at the basis of 
any society or group of human beings, and that the history of humanity is 
inextricably linked with that of communication. 

That is why it is timely to examine issues related to the 'right to communicate' 
in the context of the emerging global information society.  Because of the way 
in which the communications and information technologies cut across all 
aspects of our lives, it is not just the ITU which is concerned with the right to 
communicate.  A concerted approach is required from the whole international 
community.  This is why I proposed, a little over a year ago, that the United 
Nations should undertake a system-wide project on the theme of Universal 
Access to Basic Communication and Information Services. 

The basic idea behind this project is that in the global "information society" of 
the 21st century, none of the fundamental human rights established in the 
Universal Declaration can be implemented fully in the absence of 
communication between those who lay claim to them.  The right to 
communicate, therefore, must be seen as a dynamic concept, perceived as 
remaining open to any form of further development of technology and its 
implications. 

The purpose of the “Right to Communicate” project was to provide the UN 
system with an opportunity to reflect on the impacts and implications of the 
communication revolution for fundamental human rights, and to identify key 
issues that need to be addressed at the international, regional and country 
level.  It also provided an opportunity to examine how the members of the UN 
family could develop a concerted programme of action with a view to ensuring 
that communication and information technologies and global information 
resources are developed and applied by civil society so as to ensure that their 
benefits are universally available, in support of the goal of sustainable global 
development.

I am pleased to report that when I presented the results of this project to the 
new UN Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, and my fellow Executive Heads 
of the UN programs and specialized agencies, without exception they 
expressed their appreciation for the work undertaken and the timely 
completion of the project under the leadership of the ITU.  They agreed that 
the promotion of access to basic communication and information services for 
all should be an integral element and key priority in the efforts now underway 
to reform the United Nations system and to redefine its role.  My colleagues 
also agreed that it was  important to reinforce the efforts being made by the 
organizations of the United Nations system, and to harmonize and coordinate 
their strategies for promoting the development and effective use of 
information and communication technologies.

As a result of this project, the UN leadership has unanimously adopted a 
policy statement on Universal Access to Basic Communication and 
Information Services, and invited the Secretary-General of the United Nations 
to bring the Statement to the attention of the General Assembly with a view to 
seeking its endorsement, as well as to the governing bodies of all UN 
agencies and programs.

I am extremely pleased that the United Nations as a whole has recognized 
the importance of the right to communicate.  It is an admission that 
harnessing information and communications technologies is fundamental to 
securing sustainable economic development for all and that there is a need 
for UN agencies to pursue a more strategic and systematic approach to this 
end.  I am also personally delighted that this initiative, proposed and led by 
the ITU, helps establish the ITU as the international focal point for matters 
relating to telecommunications in the global information economy and society 
of the twenty-first century.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me finish by reminding you that the future is not a 
place we travel to, something that is waiting for us, an inevitability.  The future 
is something we must build. If we want, as I am sure we all do, a society in 
which everyone has the right to participate, then we must lay the foundations 
for that future now.  

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