The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> ANSARI OMAR: Do we have the online speakers? Maria and Shernon?
>> SHERNON OSEPA: Yes.
>> MARIA BEEBE: Maria is here.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Great. Awesome. Can we see them on the screen as well?
>> MARIA BEEBE: Not allowing me. There I am. Hi!
>> SHERNON OSEPA: They don't allow me to share my video. Please.
>> ANSARI OMAR: I can see you. Can you allow the online speakers to share their video as well? Can you hear me? You cannot hear me? I can hear myself. Are you on channel two? Can everybody hear me?
>> SHERNON OSEPA: The host doesn't allow me to share my video?
>> ANSARI OMAR: Okay. We'll make you a co‑host. That way you can share your video. Can you please allow Shernon to share his video? Okay. We can see you, Shernon.
All right. Thank you very much. Good morning. My name is Omar Ansari. I work for the APNIC Foundation as the Digital Lead. According to I2, six billion people worldwide are offline. Most of the individuals reside in the developing world. With South Asia counting for about ‑‑
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>> It is critical that we understand what the terms are in terms of Internet access.
For that, we need to have a more nuanced look at some of the numbers that we are talking about. While I try to use India as an example. I'm going to talk about three particular aspects. One is the users that we're talking about. The nature of usage and the kind of matters in which people are accessing Internet and what the challenges might be.
Now, officially, they claim to have roughly about 1.2 billion phone connections. 950 million Internet users. However, I think like all of us know, most of this usage is wireless. Wireless users in particular tend to have multiple accounts. When you actually look at the unique number of users of telephone connections or, indeed, Internet connections, you find that number probably is roughly about 65% of the larger number. So the number of unique users is about that.
Even then what we also notice is roughly about 60% of the phone lines and the Internet connections are urban. Roughly 30 or 35% of the people live or 30% of the people live. Roughly about 50% of the connections are rural. They are actually more than 70% of the people.
Again, you have a sense of how the distribution is. Further, you also see that the type of usage. For instance, you will also notice that roughly 300 million users out of the 1.2 billion relies still on 2G technologies. 2G phones. You can also begin to understand that the quality of Internet access on a 2G phone is barely functional. Beyond simple, there's very little data that you can use due to the connection. What's the same thing? A similar message can be drawn from the kind of usage that people have.
For example, whether it is WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, et cetera, we have half a billion, close to 500 million users. When you try to imagine the typical Internet users who does not use any of the services, you'll find that number probably is a very, very negligible, small number. So the limited point that I'm making is that we haven't really captured the actual, the quality or indeed the intensity of the lack of connectivity in South Asia. So that is something that I point out. We'll come to that.
I'll just mention this is largely because regulators have been focused on aggregate numbers rather than unique users. We'll discuss that further.
>> ANSARI OMAR: That was a very good start. You touched on the number of users. What are the methods of users in India and the developing world?
Jimson, you have a lot of experience of working in Nigeria and the wider African Region. Most of it is developing. How do you see the lack of activity affecting the social economic development in the regions?
>> >> JIMSON OLUFUYE: Thank you very much, Omar.
Greetings, everyone. My name is Jimson Olufuye. I'm the Chair of the African IT Alliance. It is across the three countries in Africa, so to speak. Also we will play globally. The topic is very, very important. It is really crucial. We'll talk about connectivity.
Without connectivity, we are not in the digital world. It is not just connectivity. It is very important. Many of the connectivity so that you can really have something productive to do it. In developing world, let us have the connectivity.
Nigeria, for example, we had some Internet penetration. It got reduced in the last two months. There was a requirement for the national ID phone number. But in the cities, okay, basically. To reach the material, we need to use the challenge. Get in to the connectivity for the criteria. There's this provision. The last session I attend where the panel didn't even know that it is a universal provision fund. ITU. We need to talk more about that. They are using that forum. Stakeholders within the countries, they need to engage the regulators and find out how it's been used to subsidize the rich in the underserved area.
Lastly, I did a report on the United Nations of Africa. Our report showed a 10% increase in Internet penetration viewed up to 2% increase in GDP capital. That's an incentive to government to take this thing very seriously. Thank you very much.
>> ANSARI OMAR: That was very good. That was new as well. The relation of Internet connectivity to GDP increased. That's very interesting.
Shareef, you were in the government and now in the private sector. In Maldives. How is the ‑‑ how were the island economies addressing the challenges? Especially Maldives and other geographically unique economies? How do you see and what are you advised in good practices that could be utilised?
>> MOHAMED SHAREEF: Thank you. Let me start by thanking the APNIC Foundation for inviting us. I'm from the island context. The small island, developing states, we also ourselves. SIDS. We are a large ocean country. If you take Maldives, for example, the country is as big as some European countries. But the landmarks is only less than 1%. Our challenge is how do you connect hundreds and hundreds of islands, small islands, across hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of ocean?
I'll give you the answer. I only have two minutes. The answer is: prioritising connectivity. Prioritising bandwidth; right? It is developing countries; we have many needs. We have few resources.
Often, we say okay we have health issues and education. We have connectivity infrastructure. I think today we've got to want better health and education. We've got to invest in infra. We have gone from the geostationary. I have submarine cables landing Maldives.
Especially in 2023, we prioritised just having bandwidth. Thank you.
>> ANSARI OMAR: The bandwidth prioritisation is one key important issue. I think many of the countries in our region, in South Asia particularly, when I was in Afghanistan we had not, ‑‑ addressing the bandwidth needs was not a solution. It is important on the floor. That will really affect the cost and the quality of services. More people will connect. Thank you very much, Shareef.
Let's take, you know, some views from our online participants. Maria, from the capacity‑building perspective, in the developing world, what critical skill gaps do you see that is affecting the digital divide? What could be done to address this?
>> MARIA BEEBE: Hi, everyone. Can you hear me? Thank you, Omar.
I'm just going to dive right in to the critical skill gaps contributing to the digital divide.
First, is the basic digital literacy. Which is the lack of foundational, digital skills, such as using computers, smartphones, or navigating the Internet. Which limits the ability to access information, services, and opportunities online.
Another one is advanced technical skills, such as programming, cybersecurity, data analytics, and AI which enters the local innovation and participation in the global, digital economy. A third is negotiations and network infrastructure. Some of you have already discussed that.
But still in the network design management and maintenance, for example, open run. 5G deployment. They need to be developed in developing regions to speed up digital infrastructure expansion.
Fourth, we normally don't think about this entrepreneurial and business skills, knowledge to leverage the digital technologies for entrepreneurship, local businesses, and economic growth. And some of you already talked a little bit about the policy and regulatory considerations. There was a need for technical knowledge to develop and implement effective digital policies. Because policies that are not effective enter equitable access and innovation. There's language barriers. They can restrict access to online content, training and collaboration opportunities. A couple more training in the digital education. Educators have lacked the skills to integrate the digital tools into the teaching and learning. They perpetuate a cycle of low digital literally.
Finally, of course, cultural and low gender barriers. Where women in marginalised groups have less access to skills, training, perpetuating, existing, and inequities. The other half of the question is strategies to bridge skill gaps. I think I should leave that for the question and answer. Thank you.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Maria.
>> MARIA BEEBE: We lost you, Omar.
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>> First of all, of course, this is a great opportunity for us to share the experience at forum. It is probably the first time that we're in IGF. Just for the sake of the majority of the audience, it is in the south corporation model. We have member states across Asia, Africa, Middle East, and Latin America.
Coming back to the question. Of course, we have had the primary mandate to support and provide the enabling digital infrastructure in member states that would facilitate the government to provide further DPI and digital public infrastructure services to the citizens and also enable for the solutions. The challenges that we've seen is lack of mentioning before me. The lack of understanding of what new emerging technologies can provide as an assistance to provide and bridge the digital gap. We have some of the examples that we've done is enabling the capable infrastructure in Southeast Asia and Bangladesh. We've done some cable projects in Africa and Djibouti. We've done programmes in Africa. We do have finance a good number of projects. We're working closely with other African. We are now working on developing certain programmes in the Arab and African states in partnership with UNDP and ITU. What we are really realising is the lack of capacity. The institutional capacity in terms of the bridging the digital divide in the country.
Also, of course, lack of proper feasibility studies of infrastructure projects. We realise this is the main bottle neck that people believe is resisting the ‑‑ in terms bridging the digital divide in member states. I'll stop here. I'm happy to share more examples later on.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you for the documentation. Lack of prioritisation and lack of institutional capacity to do all of these is a major challenge. Do we have Shernon online?
>>SHERNON OSEPA: Yes.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Shernon, thank you very much. Sorry for the technical issues. In the Caribbean context, what disparities in the Internet access to you observe? How is it influencing the regional development priorities?
>> SHERNON OSEPA: Yes. First of all, I would like to thank you, Omar, as well, for the invitation. I'm a Strategic Advisor for the Caribbean Telecommunication Union.
We have been observing several challenges within the Caribbean. The Caribbean is diverse. When we talk about the Caribbean, sometimes people think it is a country. We have a lot of islands. If we look, we have two big extremes. If you look, for example, at the country in this western hemisphere, which is Haiti, its Internet penetration is approximately 39%.
When we look at countries within the Caribbean which hire GDPs, their Internet penetration is 80%. This is true when we look at technologies being used. Mostly we are using mobile technologies. 3G and 4G. Mostly 4G.
Nowadays, there's some discussions and pilots ongoing with respect to 5G. We haven't seen a big, can I say, gauge for 5G just yet. When we look at the challenges, we look and have some economic barriers, for example, very high government fees. The Caribbean is also part of the SIDS, Small Island Development States. We have unique challenges. We see high government fees, taxes, dominant of over the top providers, which especially telecoms operators are saying they are not receiving enough revenue based on all of these online ‑‑ based on all of the over‑the‑top services being provided.
When we look at infrastructure itself, it has some challenges. As I did mention. It depends which country you are looking at. Some are very well developed. One of the very important issues that we are having and focusing right now in the Caribbean is the, what we call, the subsea cables. All of the Internet traffic is being transported over the subsea cables.
What we have in the Caribbean is quite old. Most of these cables are reaching the end of life period. We need to find ways how to continue for the development to continue to see how we can enhance all of these subsea cables. This is very high level. Maybe later on in the questions and apps, I'll make a more deep dive.
For now, this is very high level what we are seeing in the Caribbean. Thank you very much.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you very much, Shernon. You've also touched upon the correlation of GDPR with connectivity. Earlier, Jimson said that the higher the connectivity, the higher the GDP. It enhances GDP if more people are connected. It means connectivity should be prioritised, so that, you know, enhanced the GDP.
In terms of the over the top operators in the R Pool, when I was in Afghanistan, the operators would complain that the output was very low. Because there were complaints about the price of Internet. When I did a little calculation, the African operators were higher than India and Pakistan. So there was much higher. And there were times it was, like, extremely high.
When the forces were still in Afghanistan, they kept the price really, really unaffordable for the African population. You'll see around 80% of the country is still offline. This is some of the challenges that we need to identify and address.
With this, we're done with the work. First segment. I'm happy to take one comment or question from the floor before we open the second segment of our conversation. Is there anybody who would like to share an opinion? Or question? Gentleman we'll take one and then in the next segment, we'll take another one. Perhaps we could take you next. Please keep it brief at 1:00. There will be a Q & A later as well.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello. I have a question. We are cyber aware.
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>> AUDIENCE: We have a big challenge in cyber awareness. Most of the people who are educated or uneducated they are using Internet. Without knowing the threat of cyber context and how to use Internet, --
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>> AUDIENCE: In the other countries.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Cyberattacks. How we can secure the infrastructure? How we can protect our populations from the cyberattacks?
Who would like to comment on that? Okay. A quick one from Shareef, then Jimson.
>> MOHAMED SHAREEF: I think the point that's been raised is extremely important. We're trying to connect everybody. We have to understand what are the dangers for individuals in the cyber space. We have to put in the national programmes in place to make everyone as a contributor to the safer digital space nationally and globally. Yes. Cyber awareness. It should be a national strategy and programme. Thank you.
>> JIMSON OLUFUYE: Yes, indeed. Very important question. I want to highlight because of the question, the commission from Africa commissioned the report. I report I mention on the Internet also talked about cybersecurity majority. The 10% increase in majority will yield around 5.4% increase in GDP for capital. That's the fact that it takes the majority very seriously. We trust the Internet.
Lastly on this, we built a framework. A framework for organisation, for enterprises, for countries to assess themselves. That's the majority assessment.
If you want to check it out, you can check it out. It is still available and free. You can check the organisation and the majority. TCMN.Africa. Through that link, you can check your gaps to improve on your majority and measures for the gaps. Thank you very much.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Jimson. Another interesting finding. The relation of cybersecurity majority with the GDP. Who has ‑‑ Shernon, would you like to comment on this?
>> SHERNON OSEPA: Yes. Yes. Yes. Very good. We have seen especially during the COVID pandemic in the Caribbean when government started to use more avenues to communicate in the community. The criminals decided this is an opportunity for us as well.
While we're trying to address connectivity and trying to get more people connected, we need to be aware that the cyber and criminals also will use this means to contact, let's say, potential victims. It is important to look at few areas when we talk about the cybersecurity. Showing the domain names. You can have ways how to protect them. We don't have time to go in right now. It is a very important topic that we need to focus on, because criminals also are using this very important tools which is the Internet to contact their victims. Thank you.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Shernon.
With this, I would like to move to segment number two. It is the policy framework and regulatory measures. The purpose of this segment is to evaluate the current policies for effectiveness and the government's role in driving connectivity and inclusion, such as agenda.
I'll go back to Mahesh. Mahesh, what specific policy reforms in India with South Asia could most effectually enhance the connectivity in the rural and south areas?
>> MAHESH UPPAL: Picking up from what was mentioned, the key regulatory shift in focus that's required is what I would call disaggregation. That's to look at different parts of the lack of connectivity.
Clearly, there are technologies for the mobile that we're all familiar with. It has been for most countries, particularly developing countries. They are expanding as well as Internet access. Very, very speedy way. However, there are gaps.
For example, we see the technologies are not particularly suitable in remote areas. They are extremely expensive to use in the areas. Particularly, there are other technologies which are more appropriate. Sadly, I think, for most of the regulatory regimes that I've studied are focused on the aggregate connectivity. They are missing the point. Certain very, very important disadvantaged areas and populations are getting caught in the middle.
So, for example, we do need focus on technologies like satellites for remote areas. We also need to make sure that other, for instance, most of the technology and the telecom sector and everywhere in the region is led by Telecos. They have their strengths and their own commercial imperatives. I think we have to recognise that some of the less attractive commercial usage will need other players. They will need other technologies. That's something which the regulators need to open their eyes to in a way and focus on and enable the environment. I'll stop here.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you. Technology is changing and advancing. The regulator needs to be, you know, they should adopt the change. They should be more flexible. That's, I think, a key message.
>> MAHESH UPPAL: People are falling between the cracks.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Right. How they could be perfected. These are some of the key issues. Mahesh, thank you.
Jimson, how was Nigeria or Africa or similar countries in Africa or other places that you've been working in?
>> JIMSON OLUFUYE: I've managed to balance between fostering innovation and digital ability in the services. Earlier, you spoke about the relation of connectivity with the services. You talked about the SIM card registration perhaps. Enhancing connectivity in Africa. What do you say about this?
>> JIMSON OLUFUYE: Thank you very much again for the question. Let's first look at good frameworks.
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>> JIMSON OLUFUYE: We look recently at the group for the future. We have five objectives. Making everybody to have the benefit and the economy. All of the rights talking about governs and talking about AI management for progress.
At the group level in Africa, we have a number of conventions and the African union. We have many frameworks to guide us. The key is in the countries, inside the countries. In Nigeria, well, for example, we've made a lot of progress. We have framework. We listen to the private sector, the Civil Society, and the technical communities. We all came in with the President. Where we have issues so that we can resolve amicably. We're able to resolve many.
For example, you might admit. The government, the present, resolve it. Very important. We need that multistakeholder. The issue of management and the provision form. It is a challenge across Africa. Many collective and they search yesterday. They were talking about mismanagement or corruption. The way to that is digitalisation.
If you digitalise the processes, you can have the citizens. They are emitting with all citizens. That's the action. Thank you very much.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Jimson. With digitalisation, the people will be part of the developing process and citizens will have a say. This could also address the issues related to corruption perhaps.
Mohamed Shareef, what were the successful strategies in the Maldives that helped with connectivity?
>> MOHAMED SHAREEF: Thank you.
If we draw some lessons from where Maldives has been and where it is going, for example, having achieved over 85% Internet penetration and 50% 5G penetration. I definitely would say overall the regulatory framework has to have two key features. One, this has got to be liberal. Two, this is going to be collaborative. This is the challenge.
How can you have a regulatory environment where the regulator and the service providers and the policymaker, minimum, these three players can come together and work on a policy environment and develop a line strategies? The national policies and regulators and strategic guidance and protections of the customers align with what and how the service providers want to invest in that market.
Ultimately, everybody wants to protect the market integrated. Because if there's no market, there's no incentive for private sector investment in the country where hundreds of kilometers of submarine and domestic cables now connect. Hundreds of islands. This has been the key. Plus how do you bring in international ISP like Starling. Again because we have a collaborative environment. They spend a lot of time.
Now the final point, the national IGF, the fourth stakeholder needs to come together. Thank you.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Shareef. So the need for policymaker regulator and operator worked together. But there's a forward segment that you mentioned. It is the community. Let's call it the consumer. Which was mentioned before. So they can work together to develop and enhance the policy in the regulatory environment. Thank you very much, Shareef.
How can governments in the developing countries integrate capacity‑building initiatives to include the regulatory framework to drive digital inclusion?
>> MARIA BEEBE: Do you want me to take that Omar?
At the same time, there's licencing agreements. Another example is: to establish digital inclusion funds. Where a percentage of revenue from telecom operators or auctions is allocated to find the digital skills, skill training, and inclusion programmes.
Then, there's another big basket of strategies related to public/private partnerships. For example, collaborations with industry leaders. Encouraging the infrastructure being done by the management. That's part of the Asian open run in the Philippines. Another possible area for discussion for the regulatory discussion is providing tax breaks and upscaling technology in digital technologies. In some countries with, they have corporate social responsibility leveraging that. It sponsored the digital responsibility. They prefer to do the drops and so on. It is trying to convince people that digital literacy is just as important as food in the stomach. Just as important.
Another one is regulating in technologies. That includes great training standards for new technologies. Like establishing guidelines for building in critical fields like 5G. Cybersecurity of the mentioned. I'll give one more example. Including the digital skill certification as prerequisites such as IT.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Maria. Very insightful discussions. I particularly like the idea of the Digital Inclusion Fund. Most of the countries have a universal fund. Perhaps a portion could be allocated to digital inclusion. And tech companies and telecos also investing in capacity building. Because without digital literacy, perhaps it would be difficult for people to connect.
The first thing is the connectivity and the second is how it could be meaningful. How it could become meaningful is for how the users to understand how they can better use the Internet and technologies? Shernon, what lessons from global framework can be applied for market‑driven connectivity?
>> SHERNON OSEPA: Yes. First of all, it is important for us not to just to replicate everything that we're seeing ‑‑ let's say going on globally. Small island states are different. We have challenges that maybe the countries don't have.
For example, it is formidable to natural disasters. We have small and closed economies. We have higher import and export cost. We have limited resources. It is still important that we look at what is happening globally. But what I'm trying to say is we cannot replicate the global situation. What is very important is one of the measures that we are focusing on is happening globally. It is infrastructure sharing.
Then, we would like to use the cost for telecom operators. If we can share the powers and sites and buildings. We haven't seen much development with respect to active sharing. There's discussions ongoing. We haven't seen them really in real life happening. One of the also other developments that we're seeing in the Caribbean is what we call data centre and cloud services. We have data centre in the Caribbean. That's done at highest level of data centre that we can reach. There's another one being built right now as well. This is one of the developments that we're seeing.
One of the other challenges that we are seeing and we're trying to address is data sovereignty. Some countries. If you look at how the infrastructure in the Caribbean is developed, most of all of the traffic has to go through the U.S. You may have some concerned government. Not all traffic is going through the U.S.
Right now, you have through the LL Link from Europe and Portugal to Brazil. You are trying also to get a link to the Caribbean from that. In addition to that, there's also one and another cable system. What I like to do is look through some of the global best practices that we have seen. One other challenge is collaboration among operators. Here's, for example, my own organisation and the union is focusing on a lot on especially with respect to spectrum sharing and coordination.
We have two areas in the region. Region Two, which is the Americas. We have based on institutional developments, for example, they are part of Europe. They need to coordinate when it comes to spectrum to avoid these kind of things. These are basically global developments that we're seeing. We are trying to use the developments. It is not just replication of one to one. Some of the global developments would not work given that we are a small island of states. Thank you.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Shernon. Very important issues that you phrased. Two of them were very important to me.
Number one: the passive infrastructure discussion. In Afghanistan, from my experience, it is running the ISP in Afghanistan. 80% of the cost of fiber extension would go to the digging and laying infrastructure. If you kindly deduct that, it's going to be 20% less. I think many, many investors would be interested, you know, to invest that. So the government needs to support the passive infrastructure first. That would make it easy and attractive to work on the active infrastructure.
And the second issue that you've raised is about the collaboration between the operators. This is a very interesting topic. In some countries, it might be against, you know, the regulatory, you know, majors or policy. Operators to collaborate with each other. But that's an interesting discussion. Perhaps we can dig deeper into it in our future discussions.
With that, I would like to go back to Shernon. From your perspective, Shernon, working with different policymakers and with the governments across member states, what policy frameworks or financing strategies have proven most effective for attracting investment in digital infrastructure?
>> MOHAMED SHAREEF: Thank you very much. It is an important question to address. Just to let you know it's been in operation for over 49 years. Next year we'll be celebrating our 50th anniversary. We have a lot of experience in different countries. We've often heard about the challenges and the local dynamics. One solution is not for all. What we've done is more recently, traditionally we'll be financing digital public infrastructure.
More recently what we've come up with, the last we launched the Digital Inclusion Strategy for 2024‑2027. As part of the strategy, what we've done is come up with a programme called Digital Inclusion Strategic Partnership Programme. I'll specifically share a couple of examples that we've done out of this programme.
But before that, I would like to maybe address the strategy. We have to provide a meaningful environment and what we are possessing is availability and affordability. These are the three key aspects. We want to make sure we have the right capacity. Once the service is available, so we make the best use of the services with the project intervention and the finance. Coming back to the examples. I'll share a couple of examples. Starting with what you are doing with ITU. We are helping developing smart regions in Pakistan. We are developing smart regions and connecting local schools with girls with teachers in the city teaching subjects that were not available in villages before.
On top of that, providing Internet connectivity to the doctor sitting in the city is basically doing online consultation with a trained nurse in the local village through the programme. What we're doing is we're now replicating this in other villages as well. This is one example that we're doing in partnership with ITU.
In terms of capacity building, what we've done with ITU as I mentioned three weeks ago we were in Nigeria. We did the digital regulation training through the five‑day training programme for the policymakers and from African regions. We are 15 counties who participanted in the programmes. The government of Saudi Arabia, UK, ITU, and the bank basically organised for the traffic and policymakers.
Last but not least, one of the examples that we are working with UNTP is on harnessing artificial intelligence. What is the initiative that what we're doing with the ministry of initiatives. We are helping them. Because in any infrastructure planning, they have a local consultation process together with the requirements and all of the challenges and the work solutions would best fit in the villages. We are handpicked for the three villages, sorry, three providences. We are working to use artificial intelligence to collect the data of the requirement for better infrastructure services in the regions across Indonesia and use this information to do better planning and then ultimately replicate it other villages and in Asia as well. The sense of what we're trying to do is we provide connectivity. We provide capacity building.
Also last but not least, what we are focusing on is mainstreaming of technology to support other services. Like a smart education, agriculture services, also in the smart education is health services as well. On top of facilitating energy, transport, urban transport, water. All of the different established sectors, we're promoting the use of knowledge for efficiency and transparency.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you very much.
With this, we are concluding our segment two. Moving to our third and last segment.
Before we do that, there was a question. You had your hand raised in the other segment. Do you still have the question? Is it addressed? Keep it short. Then I'll just need one of the panel speakers to respond to this, so that we have sufficient time for the next one.
>> AUDIENCE: Can you hear me? I'm from Tanzania. I'm thinking the intervention. I wanted to make an intervention as part of the ‑‑ of my work to connect the unconnected in Tanzania. What we have been able to manage Tanzania is the low‑hanging fruits.
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In terms of ‑‑
So the idea is while we continue to look at the activities in our space, we need to continue to use the availability ‑‑ the available infrastructure to be able to point at schools and communities.
For example, in Tanzania, we've been able to connect about ten schools. Using the fiber network. Also using the combination of microwave that's available in the villages, by using a simple model of communities, you know, coming together to ensure that, you know, they pool their resources together in the form of community networks to connect communities as well as the schools.
I think as we continue to debate on the right kind of, you know, policies and infrastructure that is needed to connect, we also have to take the advantage of the hanging fruits to connect schools, especially. Because the schools is where we are defining the future of digital Asia or digital Africa or digital whatever America. That's where the kids are. They need to be connected to digital opportunities online. We are not just connecting communities and schools for the sake of connecting. But we are connecting them to their resources that can help them even solve the SDG number one to get people out.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you very much. That was a good comment. Perhaps a good start to the last segment. Which is about innovative technologies and partnerships.
Mahesh, let's start with you again. You work with the regulatory authorities in India. You've been consulting in advising the governments to enhance connectivity. In your view, what innovative technologies have been improving access in the areas?
>> MAHESH UPPAL: I would say that ‑‑ sure. I, too, am learning to use the mic. Join the club.
I think in a way the answer to your question, Omar, is that we've seen very limited innovation. I think what we've seen is a huge success of terrestrial, mobile services. Which the operators, particularly the telecos have operated in many different ways.
For example, if you have a question of pre‑paid. In India you have micropre‑paid. You could get a recharge of something like five rupees, which is about ten cents. That's worked quite well. There's another innovation that hasn't worked.
For example, our approach to Wifi, HotSpots has not worked. Our approach to Internet has not worked. The telecos are a huge use. If the incentives aren't aligned, they do not work well. They have found very little attention to getting the right kind of balance between the stakeholders. I think the regular layers need to work more carefully on that. There's no sortage of innovative modest.
For example, one of the thanks that we in India is the lack of business models. You cannot get a handset with your service. It has been hugely beneficial to a lot of people who have affordability problems. Our regulatory regime, if you like, or our licencing regime has an approach which actually disallowed that. There are many things like that which actually same thing. We do not let anybody from the exclusion. We have licencing at certain geographic sites.
Given what we are talking about today: marginalised people. We have operations and regions which need to be specifically focused on. I think the licencing regime, which actually at the time when there was exactly one operator and one service in most countries, namely the government was the main operator. There was only one telephone.
Now given what the whole Internet space and the way it is evolved, our regulatory regimes are just struggling to keep up. I think they have not managed to liberalise the entry into the market sufficiently, so that people have the freedom to try new innovative solutions. Regulators also, I think, need to innovate in a big way. Which again is a separate subject that I will be happy to discuss it.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you very much. I agree that regulators needs to enhance and improve. Efficiency regime is very important. I was speaking with Punyata the other day about how the IP is banned in Afghanistan. It is nowhere in the law or policy that it is banned. But in the licencing of high speeds, it is written that you get VoIP. That was surprising. I was in the session with the speaker remotely. He was talking about the definition of coverage.
When we say coverage, it is the population. It is not the land cover. For the future not only Internet for people, but Internet of things as well. We're talking about all of the technologies that would need connectivity. You have to enhance some of the technical concepts. I would like to come to Jimson. Technology is not what you think. What is it like in the regions?
>> JIMSON OLUFUYE: Thank you for the question. Starlink has demonstrated that you can really use, you know, satellite technology profitably and effectively. And that brings us to find out what happened to country‑launched satellites. I think we need to ask a little question about the countries that have satellite for the Internet. We don't see benefits. As much benefits. Perhaps we need to bring about competition. Open it up. Okay? We recommend that it should be prioritisation. Let there be more competition.
With that, there's more innovation. Talking about the technologies with me. It can help in the widespread guidelines. It is terrible because of the interest. Also, we must not forget about IPv6. We talk about connectivity. IPv6, you have the connectivity and security. That's where the regulators realise the room of people and position from IPv4 to IPv6 seriously. Because it is a lot of features and a lot of benefits. In terms of faster connectivity, speed, bandwidth, and derived from that.
Lastly, services. Services are unique to digitalisation. And they are out sourcing. You know, that will help you a lot. Outsourcing. I'm in the private sector. It is outsourcing of the activity. They need to outsource. So that we can get deeper, you know, in to meaningful and provide meaningful connectivity for everyone. Thank you very much.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Jimson. We'll ask our other speakers. Let's keep it short. We also ‑‑ I think how much time do we have? 20 minutes left. Total. In total. Okay.
If we can keep it at one or one and a half minutes, so we can have some time for the audiences to speak. What other can use the challenges that we are discussing?
>> MOHAMED SHAREEF: Thank you for the question. We are working with the regencies and banks. I think the core of what you've seen as best practice is the country itself. Which needs to understand what they want and where they are and how they would like to proceed. From A to B. If they understand and only then external partners could help and assist. It becomes a huge challenge.
When they come in to facilitate with the assistance of leaving no one behind, if we can work and complement each of the strengths. If a partner like UNDP comes the technical expertise and financial institution like this. It comes in to provide the finances needed to address the given challenge. That's how we implement with the technical and financial resources. Both are extremely important in order to address any challenge in this current phase.
And I think we are now seeing the role of digital cooperation and organisation in Saudi Arabia coming in to encourage collaboration with a different partners, donors, institutions, ranks, UN agencies, and regional organisations that come up together to address the challenge. We are part of the system.
>> MAHESH UPPAL: Let me take an example. One of the big teleco companies, but our oldest telecom service provider, started as a partnership between Cable and YLS UK in the government of Maldives; right? Over the years, it has transformed into a public limited company.
Now the government has a smaller share. The public have shares. And telecom has the majority shares; right? We've gone from connecting the islands to becoming a co‑owner of CMB6. One of the most advanced, submerged cable system that has been currently laid. It is a small country. A few hundred thousand people. Becoming a co‑owner of one of the most advanced cable systems, ensuring connectivity to Maldives. This is, I think, a perfect example of how government and the citizens, and the public as well as international partners can work together to take the country to a new level. Thank you.
With that, I would like to take leave. Because I have another session starting in the plenary. With your permission. Thank you.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you very much.
Thank you for being with us.
With this, I'll go to Maria. You talked about the ‑‑ thank you very much. You talked about open rank in similar projects. How do you see, like, what are the technology trends that could help with that? Enhancing connectivity as well as the affordability across the developing world?
>> MARIA BEEBE: Thank you for that. I guess I'll start with Open RON. What is Open RON? Run is the Radio Office Network. What Open RON does is it decoupled and enables innovation and fostering cost.
Sadly, all of the examples right now are mostly in developing countries. Like the U.S., some countries in Europe. There are companies that enable them to participate in the local supply chain which would boost local economy and support scalability for rural and underserved region and encourages regional development in telecoms and software engineering. Related example would be, excuse me, community networks and shared spectrum. Community network is small cost in areas. It does require sharing the spectrum. It requires the service to optimise the usage.
CBRS is not yet practiced in the Philippines and another sad story. But something for consideration for policy and regulatory consideration. It is CBRS. It is used in the U.S. in addition to doing innovation films. Community networks and shared spectrum empower local communities to deploy and manage their own networks. Which, of course, requires them capacity building. It does reduce dependency on large telecom operators. They are there for their return on investments. Shared spectrum lowers the entry barriers for small scale providers and enhancing affordability and however getting the spectrum allegation to benefit community networks is kind of a big challenge. It is a big headache.
I think I would to give two more. For network optimization. Let's not forget energy efficient technologies like the solar powered and low power Internet of famous devices and energy efficient network components to reduce cost and environmental impact. So, I guess, the challenge for us is, like, how we can leverage this trends and these technology trends and align them with policy infrastructure development and capacity building efforts.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Maria.
Shernon, in your view, how regional collaboration initiatives could be strengthened to improve connectivity across the Caribbean and other regions that are still offline?
>> SHERNON OSEPA: Yes. I'll focus, of course, on the Caribbean. Given the time constraint, I'll focus on two areas. We see, for example, leveraging the edge organisations that we have in the Caribbean.
For example, Caribbean Telecom is one of the ‑‑ you can compare with your real union. It is more or less the same idea behind it. It is called telecom. We have the telecommunications union of which I'm affiliated with. In addition to those, you have also another organisation called CANTO, Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications Operators. These three organisations when it comes to telecom developments is the key.
In the Caribbean, these three organisations have been working together. In one way, we need to enhance that collaboration. One other topic is what I would call the disaster resilience. As you know, the Caribbean is vulnerable to the natural disaster. Here is also where we have been working with international and global organisations that can help us to address and to raise awareness on the need to build resilience, Internet of telecommunications, the infrastructure.
If you look when disaster strikes in the Caribbean and when we look back at let's say our telecoms infrastructure, most of the time we have been identifying the key challenges. If you look at towers, sometimes if you can't expect a hurricane category number five and you see what they have been using, it is like calling and asking for trouble, you know? We need to continue to raise awareness in that regard and to help all of these telecoms operators and orders and also working with government to ensure that we have resilience and the telecoms and Internet infrastructure. These are two areas in addition to others that we have been collaborating in the region to ensure that we have meaningful telecoms and Internet services. Thank you.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you, Shernon.
With this, I would like to open the floor for questions from the audience. You've been here listening to us. Now I would like to involve you in the discussion. Please feel free to raise your hands, if you have question or comments. Be short and concise, so we can take as many as we can. There are three hands raised. Yeah. The lady in the back. Okay. Please go ahead. Introduce yourself. Name, affiliation, and your question.
>> AUDIENCE: Okay. Thank you very much.
I am Niva. Working with a company in Afghanistan. My question is for Mr. Shareef. As you share your insights about the projects in different parts of the world, considering the challenges Afghanistan is facing as a landlock and at least in the country, does ADP have any future programme to support the contingency honestly?
>> ANSARI OMAR: We'll take the other questions. Then we can. Yes.
>> AUDIENCE: Hi. My name is ‑‑ can you hear me? Can you hear me now? I'm Alisa from Vietnam and based in Germany. I would like to ask questions to several speakers. I would love you to elaborate on your country's situations. Maria, you talked about the situation ‑‑
>> MARIA BEEBE: I can't hear you.
(No audio from the conference room)
>> ANSARI OMAR: It is working. Just keep it closer.
>> AUDIENCE: You talk about digital inclusion fund and various infrastructure challenges facing the Filipinos. However, in the context of the Philippines, there are only a few Internet companies and the geography of the Philippines is very difficult to seek the Internet to a lot of islands. What can the Civil Society actors do to counter these challenges?
I have one question from Pakistan the context of Pakistan. The government plays an active role in slowing down the Internet. How can they crack down on the Internet?
I have a question for Afghanistan. Can you tell us about how the conflict in Afghanistan impacts the Internet and how can you describe the Internet resiliency in your country?
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you very much. There was ‑‑ okay. Let's go to here first. And then. Last one first. You have a question as well?
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you for the interesting and comprehensive discussion. It covers major parts of the world where connectivity is an important part. My question is to Shernon. You talked about the village and the digital village that you are working on. There's another prior ITU is working on in Afghanistan. Are you targeting true access gap when you are selecting the areas. It is not really a big issue. Because the private sector doesn't go in to areas of true access gap. Can we have development partners work on the areas? If yes, what kind of challenges to we encounter?
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you so much for this insightful conversation. I'm a student from the development centre. I would really like to learn more about how the government of each of your countries adjusts policies on digitalisation to account for those marginalised groups to make sure that innovation can cover everyone?
>> ANSARI OMAR: Okay. Any more questions? I think that's ‑‑ okay. Yeah. Thank you very much.
>> AUDIENCE: I like the discussion. I really enjoyed the example of the schools connectivity and examples of connectivity in India. How much people are connected. The digital mentioned. It is very interconnected. One of the interconnected challenges is the affordability. The solutions are temporary. You have the project which is funded to the activities finished. What happens? Like I have written in Afghanistan we have the same issue. The affordability. Sometimes there are interconnectivity there. The service providers are providing services. People are not able to ‑‑ I mean they are not fooling it.
Do you have any comments or any discussions about the revolution brought to India? Any other solutions with governments or international organisation that can help to support and provide such a solution to the connectivity? Thank you very much.
>> ANSARI OMAR: All right. Thank you very much.
I think all of you have questions. If you can go first. Then we can, you know, address it.
>> MOHAMED SHAREEF: Yeah. I wanted to clarify I'm originally from Pakistan. I'm developing the bank here. I will not be commenting on the government perspective of Pakistan.
Starting with the question that was raised. The bank works mainly with the governance. And we are operating in the model that we try to assist the government needs. As long as the government of Afghanistan officially writing to the channel, then we need to address. What we need to make sure that we are targeting a problem, which is understood and owned and prioritised by the government.
As long as these three aspects are there, only then we respond. We don't come up with their own set of agendas to address any if you believe you should be doomed. First time doing that and Afghanistan, no. The idea is the government reaching out to us sharing a problem and needing a solution for the sustainability development; right? Then we assist based on the technical due diligence and financial due diligence and legal due diligence and assist the county. This is what we are currently working with UN agencies. They are actively engaged there. You know the challenges that we have in terms of access places for the project site. We're working with the UN partner like other fragile companies that you operate in conflict zones and war situations. There are certain countries in today's world that we do not work. We work through the agencies. We are closing the question. I think, you know, as we understand that even this forum is about governance; right?
I think every country has their own set of rules and regulations to Governor the Internet. Probably whatever actions any government, including the Government of Pakistan will take is to make sure there's no social unrest. People are following the rules set by the government and set by the parliament of that particular country in order to make sure that they need to avoid any casualties or social unrest. Whatever they need to do in order to address the bigger nation like Pakistan, they will take all of those measures. I think I've probably addressed, you know, at least that aspect.
Coming back to the question that was raised about the smart village. You are absolutely spot on. The programme is by ITU. We are not directly involved. The programme is basically prioritised by the government of Pakistan, which is the Ministry of IT and telecom. They have already limited, you know, one phase.
The second phase we assess based on criteria. What are the set of initial assumptions that should be there, because we have very little resources. We can do only limited things with the limited technical and financial resources which we are certain exceptions are there. If we have a pay phone and connectivity in terms of transformation. If you are not able to reach to the place, how are we able to provide the services?
These are certain eligibility criteria that we based on that and short list certain villages. The government writing to us. We are not collecting. The government writes to us we would like your assistance in order to address the challenges and these gaps. Would you like to assess or not?
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you very much. There was ‑‑ I think our time is up. We'll close in a few minutes. There was one question for Maria for the islands being connected and what role the Civil Society can play. The second question, the last one was, I think, you addressed most of the question. Her question was about how the policies. Perhaps Mahesh can address that. Maria and back to Mahesh.
>> MARIA BEEBE: Okay.
>> ANSARI OMAR: After that, I think we're finished.
>> MARIA BEEBE: Let me give it a try. In the Philippines there's a government programme called freedom Wifi in public places. Some of the programme goes to connectivity concerns for state universities and colleges. That's one way of getting connectivity down to the communities. So there's that.
There's the NGO. The point of the academy is actually is an alliance. It is to bring together government, academics, and industry pulling together in terms of this open rung solutions. A big problem for the Open RON, of course, as I've mentioned earlier, is the radio spectrum allocation.
By definition when you say brand, it needs access to radio and radio spectrum. Yes, there are 7,000 islands in the Philippines. It is difficult to connect all of the islands. We're talking about us in the smart village, the idea of smart islands. And, of course, the connectivity is very uneven. Things like smart homes in places like metro Manila.
Of course in the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, there's no connectivity. One thing we're trying to do, the academy is to encourage networks. It takes forever to turn them around in terms of the technology. Things like if you have a providence, for example, where they do mining. You can start thinking about smart mining. How you can have connectivity and at the same time share the community with the rest of the community?
Another example is smart hospitals. If the smart hospital is trying to rise on the Internet Wifi connectivity in public places, trying to get the various work together instead of separately. Because they have separate targets and separate deliverables, separate funding. It is an excellent challenge.
I would like to continue this conversation with a lot of you in terms of, like, how can we do this together? In the Philippines, yes. But in the Pacific and in places where there are islands. And geographically isolated development areas.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you. Maria. Thank you very much. So just to finalise, before they kick us out, one minute, Mahesh. How can policy address the marginalised issues related to them?
>> MAHESH UPPAL: Yeah. I think two things. I'll make two simple points.
One is, of course, as the service is concerned, the private sector has done a fairly reasonable job. I think across the south Asian Region. I'm not sure about all of it. We have called quite considerably in India certainly drags about being one of the cheapest markets. Both for the data as well as voice. There are two areas where policymakers and regulators need to work.
One is actually access, which is the regions and populations that are currently not reached and where the private operators do not have the commercial incentive to deregulate. That's where the U.S. has the type of funds coming through. They need the great amount of creativity. Amongst they require also attention in my view to smartphones. Because while the service is cheap, the physical device is not. The price of the smartphones is actually improving quite significantly. The services that you mentioned, the case that will crash the prices and everybody else as a follow up. The price of services has one or the other fallen. The price of smartphones has not. Also connecting those has not fallen.
For that, government as well as regulators need to work creatively with such as the USF and various others.
>> ANSARI OMAR: Thank you very much. Just to quickly answer your question, colleague from Vietnam, I am from Afghanistan. It's been a few years. I'm not living there. I don't have a full, you know, understanding of what's happening now. From my observation in the Afghanistan and other local event that is are still happening online. It was one of the experts say that people were concerned with the fall of the government in Taliban take over. The Internet would be shut down in Afghanistan. But due to the fact that Afghanistan's Internet is uniquely designed, it was hard to be shut down. It doesn't have one switch from where you can shut it down. It is difficult and unique that makes it difficult for anybody to shut down. The colleagues from Afghanistan could perhaps discuss more and learn more about the realities on the ground.
Just to conclude this session, I think the session is starting. Key takeaways for all of the highlights. Bridging the connectivity gap. Addressing infrastructure, affordability, and literacy challenges is critical for connecting the offline population. That's one. Number two, policy and collaboration matters. Effective policies, regional cooperation, and public‑private partnership drive meaningful progress towards universal Internet access. Number three. Technology, innovation drive insolution. Technology like AI, satellite, wireless, and financing models provides scalability solutions for digital inclusion.
Now what needs to be done in order to achieve these is promote adoptive policies and investment. This is a shared responsibility of all of us to work on. So we need to encourage the government and stakeholders to prioritise flexible policies and target the investment that fosters innovation. The conclusion, in other regions. Also we also need to invite public‑private partnerships and regional cooperation to resources sharing, share experiences, and implement the scalability solutions.
Finally, let's keep the discussion. This should not be. It is a start for the discussion. It should not be the end of the discussion. In the future, more collaboration from you. Share your insights with us and the policy issues and the recommendations and opportunities that would contribute to the connectivity issues across the region.
Thank you very much, Mahesh, Shareef, Shernon, Maria, and everybody for participating with us. I wish you a wonderful IGF.
>> SHERNON OSEPA: Thank you.
>> MAHESH UPPAL: Thank you, Omar. Thank you, all.