In the next 10 years in telecoms we should see much faster internet access at home and on mobile devices, mobile devices will become ever more important to our connected lifestyle, the world’s economy will become “mobile” with the sustained rise of e-commerce and new ways of doing business largely based in the ‘cloud’, but we will have to face even bigger challenges in terms of personal privacy, security and the digital divide.
On a more local level, we could see the Malta Communications Authority and the Malta Broadcasting Authority merge together, all Maltese homes should have super high-speed internet access through fiber connections, and e-government services would be easier to use for a more efficient public service.
This, in a nutshell, is the message delivered in the MCA’s annual conference held last week which was themed The Next 10 Years in Telecoms and which also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the MCA.
An impressive line-up of international speakers sought to account for the present situation in ICT and telecoms and try to predict what could happen in the next 10 years. Although much of what was said will have an impact on Malta too, in an increasingly globalised and digitally connected world, there was some news specifically about Malta.
The chairman of the MCA, Philip Micallef, reiterated that the “MCA and the Malta Broadcasting Authority need to merge in Malta like in other countries. There are issues everyday that are related to content that are difficult to differentiate from issues of delivery.” In sharing his personal opinion on the matter, which if taken up at a political level would need a change in the Maltese Constitution, Mr Micallef said that customers today don’t make the difference. The current hot debate triggered by issues of TV content on local TV platforms and in Maltese households immediately comes to mind.
The minister responsible for ICT, Austin Gatt, who delivered the opening speech, looked back at the last 10 years and described the year 2001, when the MCA was formed, as a watershed for the Maltese ICT sector, with the launch of the first eMalta strategy, the introduction of cyberlaws, and liberalisation of the mobile telephony sector.
“Getting here has not been an easy ride, by any means, and it is easy to forget all the challenges that we had to overcome along the way, but our vision has, to a large extent, materialised,” the minister said with satisfaction. He announced that government has started to work on a new ICT strategy aimed at delivering its Vision 2015 and putting Malta on track to meet, and where possible, surpass the Europe 2020 objectives. According to these targets all Europeans will have access to internet speeds of above 30 Mbps, while 50 per cent or more of European households will subscribe to internet connections above 100 Mbps.
Dr Gatt emphasised the “need to use ICTs to continue to strengthen our public service and transform it into being truly efficient” and the “need to achieve our objective of having a fibre connection to each and every home.”
Moderated by Nico van Eijk, a professor of media and telecommunications law in The Netherlands, a common thread ran through the presentations and discussions: they predicted an immediate future that is more connected than the present one, with faster speeds, more services, more devices, smarter living and a sharper eye for respect of the natural environment.
The first speaker, and one who really caught the participants’ attention, was Yong Kyung Lee, an expert on the world-leading Korean telecoms market and also a Korean MP.
“We are now in an age of ‘smart communications’, with true mobile capability in the form of a powerful computer that fits right in your hand and that is always on, and unlike the fixed line, it provides a personal connection. Be prepared for the ‘mobile economy’,” he told participants, while accounting for the rapid rise of the smartphone in Korea, a world leader in this area.
Although the speakers painted a rather bright picture of an ever-more interconnected lifestyle and world around us, most of them did mention the challenges that these rapid developments will bring with them.
Chris Fonteijn, chairman of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), spoke about the challenges on a regulatory level, where there needs to be a balance between regulation and de-regulation while fostering infrastructure competition, facilitating investment in next-generation networks, increasing co-operation and tackling issues related to the openness of internet.
Guillaume Declerck from Alcatel Lucent described how the issue of next generation broadband networks, based on such technologies as fibre optics and 4G LTE mobile access, is much more than a question of speed. They will have an impact on energy efficiency, the carbon footprint, the connected home, and will support the creation of new services and new business models.
Andrea Montoli from Hewlett Packard described how in the next decade we will have “smart business” where small and medium business are set to gain a lot from ‘cloud’ computing. However, he warned that we should have our “head in the cloud, feet on the ground”.
Niculae Cantuniar from Cable & Wireless Worldwide explained how e-commerce means that global connectivity is now business critical and gave some hints as to how businesses can survive in the new economic world order that is supported by technology.
Falk Wohler-Moorhoff from Detecon also dwelt on smart business networks and gave examples of the impact of ICT on energy, health and transport, insisting that there will be “ICT for everyone, everywhere, in virtually every object – that will be the outstanding characteristic of the world of tomorrow.”
Alessandro di Salvo from Nokia Siemens Networks commented on the role of social networks and their impact on telecoms services, predicting that in the future we will have exactly the same interface experience in different technological environments.
Nigel Hickson, head of EU and international policy at the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, UK, warned that we cannot pre-empt the market but need to be aware of where it is going and that we must think globally and step out of the EU bubble.
During the conference Mike Rosner, on behalf of the Malta Internet Foundation, presented the annual prize to university students for their academic work that made a significant contribution to ICT.
Notwithstanding what was said, maybe one speaker could not have put it any better when he said “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.