ITU Vision
Outcomes
Report: An Industry in Transformation
Foreword
It is my great pleasure to introduce this Outcomes Report, the
result of in-depth analysis of more than 55 Forum sessions,
keynote speeches, roundtables and workshops held at ITU Telecom
World 2012 in Dubai last October. The exclusive Leadership
Summit, interactive panel sessions, ministerial roundtables,
industry workshops, Big Conversations and Visionary Keynote
speeches brought together the best of international ICT
leadership from public and private sectors, from academia,
non-governmental organizations and consultancies, to discuss the
implications of the current radical transformation of our
industry.
Conversations continued on the show-floor amongst national and
thematic pavilions and industry stands showcasing innovative
products, solutions and investment opportunities from around the
world - as well as at the Innovator Space, where the twelve
young finalists of the second Young Innovators Competition
demonstrated their winning ICT -based solutions to developmental
challenges.
In the course of discussions, there was diversity of opinion,
consensus and contradiction - but above all, passionate
engagement in the issues that matter. The new realities of the
ICT industry - and of society - cannot be ignored or wished
away. There is no way back to a pre-digital age: demand for data
is growing exponentially as traditional voice loses value and
relevance; over-the-top services and players are increasingly
successful; next-generation networks such as LTE and
software-defined networks will shape the future; open source
development is booming as emerging markets, local entrepreneurs
and consumers across the globe are empowered.
The principal message emerging from these five days of debate in
Dubai was that the industry must embrace rather than resist the
change, adapt, reposition and engage with new services, markets,
partners and consumers.
It is a powerful and positive message from a vibrant and rapidly
changing industry sector. We hope that you can enjoy and benefit
from the key findings from ITU Telecom World 2012 here – and
look forward to continuing the debate both online and in person
throughout the year and in Bangkok, at ITU Telecom World 2013.
By Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General
Introduction
The ideas, arguments, and recommendations presented here are a
consolidation of many hours of debate amongst some of the finest
minds concerned with the issues driving the ICT industry today.
ITU Telecom World 2012 produced disruption and digression,
commonplaces, radical new directions, but also much consensus.
This report does not aim to be comprehensive, but serves both as
a wrap-up of the event, an introduction to the topics discussed
there, and an invitation to continue the debate at ITU Telecom
World 2013.
Certain themes run across all the topics and sessions: the
irreversible nature of the transformation brought about by
IPbased services, the loss of old models and certainties, the
urgent need to embrace change and respond quickly and
imaginatively to new opportunities.
The ICT sector is undergoing a process of fragmentation. The
consumer, consumer needs and consumer-driven innovation are
increasingly at the centre of communications ecosystems. The
emphasis is on local services, local content, local development
grounded in the community needs of local markets. Differentiated
models and applications must evolve to fit the specificities of
geography, demography, generation, and economic and social
environment. Splitting infrastructure and services, offering
tiered access based on individual requirements, personalizing
networks and tailoring packages for particular organizations or
sectors - this is the fragmentation at the root of a rich range
of potential business models and markets.
There is a simultaneous move towards consolidation. Vertical
sectors from broadcasting to government services and health are
forcing new convergence models as the benefits of technological
developments such as cloud applications, M2M and virtualized
networks take hold. The way forward is often through sometimes
surprising partnerships within the industry, with government and
with other sectors. Information, research, revenue and networks
must be shared to maximise value and benefit for all.
Cooperation is essential to drive cybersecurity, e-Health and
broadband at scale; collaboration is at the heart of open source
development and innovation; only by engaging and working
together can the trust frameworks be created that will mitigate
privacy concerns and allow data to flow.
We are often exhorted to think big, aim for the stars, be bold
in our visions. But it may well be that a series of smaller,
less dramatic, more pragmatic actions are better suited for
current times. The micro-management of process, the
establishment and dissemination of best practice, the discipline
of impact assessment: these unglamorous activities can support
vision and produceresults in areas such as cyberhygiene, opening
up rights of way for broadband deployment, targeting customer
needs from the bottom up rather than top down, focusing on
quality in the core competency of the network.
Keeping the balance is, perhaps, the single most important
thread running through these pages. Balanced regulation allows
competition and innovation whilst protecting both end-users and
intellectual property; expectations of privacy and
confidentiality must be balanced against the benefits and
convenience of free data flow; respect for human rights and the
open internet are balanced by security concerns; and governments
are called upon to balance universal provision of broadband
against actual demand, short-term gains of spectrum auctions
against long-term industry growth, free competition against the
effectiveness of managed oligopolies.
With these themes of balance, cooperation and diversity in mind,
we welcome your thoughts, differing opinions and contributions
to the ideas in this document.
By Dr. Stuart Sharrock, Event Curator
Features of the New Landscape
The rapid growth of IP services, the success of over -the -top
(OTT) players in providing services, content and applications,
and the explosion of data, cloud and smartphones have radically
altered the realities of the telco sector. OTTs and operators
are mutually dependent upon each other to drive traffic over the
networks - but it is the OTTs who are currently growing revenue
through monetizing end-user data, whilst network operators face
hefty investments in nextgeneration infrastructure to cope with
increasing demand.
Differing timescales
This disconnect is enforced by the cultural and generational gap
between OTTs, developing applications in the fast-paced,
consumer-based IP world, and traditional operators. The
timescales for investment, product life cycles and business
models are dramatically out of sync; policy makers and
regulators are often unaware of the extent of transformation
within the industry; and development is in danger of being
stifled or delayed beyond market viability.
The death of voice?
Access to the network is now the basic product, rather than
voice - which is increasingly fragmented and embedded as a
feature or function of an application such as gaming or
messaging, rather than being a standalone billed item. Time,
distance and location are irrelevant in the flat IP world, as is
the old voice model based on minutes. Voice is “uncool” in
comparison with the explosion of data applications and services;
exploiting those data services, supported by analytics, cloud
computing and software -defined networks, represents a major
cultural shift for traditional telcos.
Fragmentation vs. convergence
The industry is fragmenting into closed proprietary systems
operating in silos of communication, and potentially threatening
the interconnectivity upon which the global telephony system has
been built. As end-user demands continue to shape industry
development, the loss of this ubiquitous interconnectivity may
even prove acceptable in exchange for personalized, responsive
and low-cost services. There is a contrasting pull towards new
collaborations, cooperations and partnerships, both within the
industry, in response to these changing dynamics, and across
vertical sectors, as convergence on content and services in
areas such as banking, health and education grows.
The importance of local
No one solution, model or ecosystem is or will be suitable for
all markets globally; differences of geography, economic and
social development, demography and technology remain hugely
important. It is local solutions to local issues,
locallyrelevant applications and development grounded in the
needs of local communities that will drive uptake of services
and content....Read more:
|
