World Bank Announces Broadband Connectivity Initiative for Middle East and North Africa, New Focus on Citizen Participation in ICT Solutions

Press Release No:2012/302/MENA. DOHA, March 6, 2012 --- The World Bank today launched a regional initiative to improve broadband connectivity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by bringing utilities’ fiber optic networks into broadband use.  The Bank also announced a new focus on citizen participation in the creation of information and communication technologies (ICT) solutions to development problems, building on the success of the Cairo WaterHackathon. Broadband Connectivity Initiative The World Bank’s broadband connectivity initiative will study the potential for developing regional broadband backbone networks in MENA and prepare the ground for new investments.  It will use a new approach that leverages already-deployed infrastructure from other utilities, such as electricity, transport or oil and gas.  The study is expected to tackle the main bottlenecks to broadband connectivity in the region, in particular providing redundancy (extra capacity) to existing international connectivity and opening alternative backbone networks in domestic markets.  “Worldwide, broadband is becoming an essential infrastructure for innovation, economic growth, and competitiveness,” said Doyle Gallegos, Practice Leader, Connectivity Infrastructure, World Bank. “This World Bank initiative will help increase MENA countries’ capacity to cope with the tremendous predicted increase in broadband traffic and to compete in the 21st century’s global market.” The MENA region has been actively increasing broadband connections and, as of today, broadband connects over a quarter of MENA households.  Broadband traffic in the region is predicted to grow over 100 percent in the next five years, making MENA the fastest growing region in the world with Sub-Saharan Africa.   The World Bank study will cover the region’s international and domestic connectivity and will produce four country case studies focused on utility infrastructure use in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia.  In addition, the World Bank will look at broadband-based applications to increase operational efficiency and competitiveness of utilities, starting with a smart-grid pilot project in Jordan.  Findings from these activities will be shared through regional workshops aimed at boosting investment in the region, particularly in utilities’ fiber-optic networks.  The broadband connectivity initiative is part of the World Bank’s Arab World Initiative and is supported by the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) and the Korean Government.  Jointly with InfoDev, the World Bank has also produced the Broadband Strategies Handbook, a tool providing hands-on knowledge of broadband market, technology, and policy action (http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.1118.html).   Citizen Participation in ICT Solutions Cairo hosted the first-ever WaterHackathon in October 2011 which brought together Egyptian technologists with water specialists to brainstorm innovative ICT solutions for Egypt’s biggest water challenges.  A hackathon in this context is a series of events that source problem statements from citizens, civil society, and development experts; build sectoral and digital literacy for technologists and development practitioners; and allow these partners to collectively identify technical pilot solutions.   “The Cairo WaterHackathon allowed the World Bank to ‘do things differently’ in the aftermath of the Arab Spring and engage local communities interested in shaping the future of their country,”explained Carlo Rossotto, MENA Regional Coordinator, ICT, World Bank.  “Based on this success, the World Bank will increasingly use citizen participation in the creation of ICT solutions as a mainstream tool to tackle development challenges.” The winning solutions at the Cairo WaterHackathon included: ·         A mobile and web-based application for more equitable water distribution, enabling farmers to remotely control irrigation (Salt & Rocks team) ·         An application for irrigation optimization and water saving in agricultural production, using smart mobile devices to enhance collection of field data (Abu Erdaan team) ·         A concept addressing water saving in industrial line production, using data visualization and SMS and web updates on water consumption (Run Time team) The winning teams continue to develop their ideas.  Team Abu Erdaan has managed to develop and beta-test its application and is now shortlisted among the top fifty competitors in Google’s Business Competition in Egypt.  As a follow-up, the World Bank is planning a Transport Hackathon in Cairo later this year. The Cairo WaterHackathon was organized by the World Bank in close collaboration with local partners such as the American University in Cairo, the Desert Development Center, and the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. Contacts: In Washington:  Cathy Russell, (202) 458-8124, crussell@worldbank.org                          Lara Saade, (202) 473-9887, lsaade@worldbank.org

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Internet economy: wireless subscribers drive broadband growth, says OECD

OECD 01/12/2011. Demand from new wireless broadband subscribers is driving growth in high-speed Internet in OECD countries but the latest data show a slowdown in fixed subscriptions in the first half of 2011.

New wireless broadband subscriptions maintained double digit growth, rising by 14% from the last half of 2010. Year-on-year, wireless subscriptions rose by 26%.

Fixed wired broadband subscriptions increased by only 2.25% between December 2010 and June 2011 (5.83% year-on-year), down from 6% in the last half of 2010. Today, there are 309 million fixed subscribers in the OECD.

Globally, Switzerland and the Netherlands top the fixed broadband ranking (with over 38 lines per 100 inhabitants). The OECD average is 25.1.

Korea (99.3), Sweden (93.6), Japan (80.0) and Finland (79.1) are the leading countries in wireless broadband penetration, some of them nearly doubling the OECD average of 47.9.

The share of DSL and cable subscription remains stable (58.8% and 29.5%). Fibre-to-the-home subscriptions continued to grow and now represent 13% of broadband subscription (3,5% growth in six months).

Nordic countries, with among the highest fixed broadband penetration, demonstrate very low growth in this segment and even slight falls in Finland and Iceland. They also have among the highest wireless broadband penetration rates, which indicates the overall complementary nature of these networks.

New Zealand saw a rapid rise in both fixed and wireless broadband, moving to 12th from 16th in the broadband ranking, boosted by the entry of a third mobile network operator, 2Degrees, in 2010. Demand is also likely to grow in France in 2012 with the entry of a new wireless operator, Iliad, bringing increasing competiton in prices and services to the market.

OECD countries are reporting wireless broadband data in an increasingly harmonized manner  with the OECD wireless broadband methodology, as rankings are more stable than when these were first reported  in 2010

More information about the OECD broadband portal is available at

http://www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband

For comment or further information, journalists should contact Agustin Diaz-Pines (agustin.diaz-pines@oecd.org or tel. + 33 1 45 24 19 62) or Frédéric Bourassa (frederic.bourassa@oecd.org or tel. + 33 1 45 24 81 42) of the OECD’s Information, Communications and Consumer Policy division.

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Release of Spectrum Is Set to Generate an Additional US$82 billion in GDP Per Year and Help Lift 40 Million Sub-Saharan Africans Out of Poverty by 2025

GSM World. 29 November 2011,ATU Digital Migration and Spectrum Policy Summit, Nairobi.The GSMA today announced that greater allocation of spectrum for Mobile Broadband is vital for the economic and social development of sub-Saharan Africa. New findings from a report by the GSMA and Plum Consulting reveal that, across the region, the release of Mobile Broadband spectrum in the Digital Dividend and the 2.6GHz bands by 2015 in sub-Saharan Africa could:

•Create up to 27 million new jobs, increase GDP per capita by 5.2 per cent1, which will directly lift 40 million people out of poverty2 by 2025; and

•Increase GDP and government tax revenues by US$82 billion and US$18 billion per year respectively by 2025.

Mobile voice and SMS services have made major economic contributions to sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade and accounted for 3.5 per cent of regional GDP by 2010. While the effects of broadband internet access are just beginning to be felt across the region, its importance has been recognised by the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development which has set a global broadband challenge “to ensure that 40 per cent of households in developing countries are using broadband internet by 20153.” In sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of fixed line telecom infrastructure means that Mobile Broadband services will be essential in achieving this target.

The GSMA expects that there will be 240 million Mobile Broadband connections in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015, compared to just 4 million fixed broadband connections4. The GSMA is therefore calling on countries across the region, including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, to urgently release harmonised spectrum for Mobile Broadband. This will expand the reach and availability of affordable broadband services and help realise significant economic and human development gains for sub-Saharan Africa.

Currently, just 80MHz of spectrum is available for delivering Mobile Broadband service in a typical African market. In contrast, mobile operators in many middle and high-income markets have access up to 400MHz of spectrum for delivering Mobile Broadband.

“African governments must act now to release much-needed spectrum for Mobile Broadband services if they are to meet the UN’s 40 per cent broadband target,” said Peter Lyons, Director of Spectrum Policy, Africa and Middle East, GSMA. “Increased spectrum will lower the cost of mobile devices, improve speed of data communication, and ultimately help nearly 40 million Africans escape poverty.”

By licensing spectrum in the Digital Dividend and the 2.5GHz bands for Mobile Broadband, governments in the region have the opportunity to increase total spectrum available by approximately 70 per cent. In particular, the Digital Dividend band, which is currently used for analogue television broadcasting, offers widespread mobile broadband coverage in rural areas and improved indoor penetration in urban areas. In rural areas alone, the Digital Dividend band could deliver Mobile Broadband service to between 40 to 80 per cent of the population.

Lyons continued: “If governments in sub-Saharan Africa allocate more spectrum for Mobile Broadband over a 10-year period from 2015, this would result in US$235 billion of additional GDP and US$50 billion in additional tax revenues5. However, if the release of spectrum is delayed by five years, then these benefits would fall to US$50 billion in additional GDP, and US$10 billion in additional tax revenue. Action is required now to secure the future connectivity and economic empowerment of Africa’s citizens.” 

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Asia Pacific will Dominate the Connected Device Market, Fuelled by Explosive Growth in China, says GSMA

GSMA. 16 November 2011, Mobile Asia Congress, Hong Kong. The GSMA, in partnership with Machina Research, today announced that the growth of connected devices is booming in Asia Pacific, with the region expected to be the biggest market by 2020 with over 11 billion total connected devices¹, and within that, almost 5.6 billion mobile connected devices², accounting for a 47 per cent market share and far outstripping Europe (19.1 per cent) and North America (9.4 per cent). The growth of connected devices makes the vision of a Connected Life a reality by delivering new services to multiple device types beyond traditional mobile phones. Powered by ubiquitous Mobile Broadband, this will allow consumers and businesses to interact with the people, information and objects they require, whenever and wherever they need.

“Asia Pacific has more than half of the world’s six billion mobile connections and is at the forefront of next-generation Mobile Broadband technologies and cutting-edge innovation, but there is far greater scope for growth,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “The projected rise of connected devices across the region demonstrates the enormous potential for the entire Connected Life ecosystem, with billions of new devices connected via mobile networks enabling innovative applications, services and experiences across all sectors.”

China will be the chief driver of this growth and will have nearly five billion total connected devices by 2020 - more than any other market globally - resulting in China-based mobile operators being able to benefit from the highest addressable revenue opportunity³ across the region of US$180 billion. The global addressable revenue opportunity for mobile operators for this space by 2020 is US$1.2 trillion, and from this, operators across Asia Pacific could benefit from revenues of US$447 billion, nearly 50 per cent higher than Europe at US$305 billion⁴.

           

In Asia Pacific, connected mobile growth enabling seamless and pervasive connectivity between people and processes will increase dramatically over the next ten years, in part because mobile is virtually the only option for connectivity for many countries in the region. In a market that already comprises more than half of the world’s mobile connections, this presents a huge opportunity for mobile operators.

           

Emerging Asian markets will be the main contributors to connected growth, with the total number of connected devices increasing by more than 150 per cent between 2011 and 2020. In developed nations in Asia Pacific, consumers in Japan and South Korea will each have an average of eleven connected devices by 2020, making it the highest share of connected devices per capita in the world. By 2020, Japan will also have the third highest device share by volume, behind China and the United States.

Mobile Health Market Stimulating Growth of Connected Devices

Growth of mobile health services in Asia Pacific is stimulating demand for connected devices and making the Connected Life a reality. In a separate study, new figures from the GSMA, developed in collaboration with PwC for a global report entitled ‘Mobile Health – Enabling Healthcare’⁵, indicates that the Asia Pacific mobile health market will grow to almost US$7 billion in 2017 at a CAGR of approximately 70 per cent. The mobile health services representing the largest opportunity across the region include monitoring services, with a 55 per cent market share in 2017 and diagnostic services, with a 24 per cent market share.

China will have the biggest mobile health market in 2017, driven by growth in monitoring and diagnosis that will facilitate the delivery of effective healthcare to a widely spread population who have poor health access. This will help to create a market opportunity of US$2.4 billion in China, dwarfing the next largest markets, Japan (US$1.3 billion) and India (US$540 million). Monitoring represents the biggest opportunity in Japan (63 per cent market share) due to the large number of elderly, and in India diagnostics will create the biggest opportunity (67 per cent market share) due to most Indians living in rural areas.

“Mobile health is a prime example of how mobile operators can leverage existing platforms and technology to provide innovative services to connect people throughout Asia Pacific,” continued O’Hara. “Asia Pacific’s predicted growth in connected devices, through an array of applications, means that the region is on the threshold of radically transforming the lives of its consumers, professionally and personally. To make the Connected Life ubiquitous, it’s vital that the mobile industry works with key adjacent industries in the region, including healthcare.”

The Connected Life opportunity is by no means confined to healthcare. The close collaboration of mobile operators with companies in a range of vertical sectors, such as automotive, utilities and consumer electronics, will provide compelling new ‘connected’ services to consumers and businesses all over the world. The benefit of this is huge, as the Connected Life will create new opportunities for companies to engage with existing customers while adopting new ones, as well as deliver new service opportunities that will generate additional revenue.

           

For more information on the GSMA’s Connected Life programme, please visit: www.gsmaconnectedlife.com.

Watch Connected Devices, the $1.2 Trillion Revenue Opportunity on Mobile World Live now! www.mobileworldlive.com.

Notes to editors

¹Connected devices are smart wide area and short range devices that have the benefit of connecting to a network, including: remote sensors, remote monitoring, actuating devices, associated aggregation devices, PCs, laptops, tablets, eReaders, mobile handsets, femto cells & routers.

²Of the 11 billion ‘total’ connected devices forecast to be available across Asia Pacific by 2020, almost 5.6 billion of these will be ‘mobile’ connected devices, which represents a 75 per cent increase from 2011 and a 47 per cent market share globally. Mobile connected devices are either currently or likely to include SIM technology and therefore be connected by wide area mobile networks.

³ The addressable revenue is what a pure-play mobile operator could potentially compete for a share of. This is comprised of revenues from the sale of mobile devices by the mobile operator, data traffic, applications, system integration, installation, and most significantly, specific service revenues available to mobile operators. These revenues are largely incremental to the majority of mobile operator’s existing revenue streams and therefore present a real opportunity for future revenue growth beyond basic data browsing, messaging and voice revenues. The addressable opportunity for mobile operators that have access to fixed infrastructure and systems integration capabilities is clearly going to be greater.

⁴The global addressable revenue opportunity for mobile operators by 2020 is US$1.2 Trillion. Regionally, this equates to:

• Asia Pacific: US$447 billion
• Europe: US$305 billion
• North America: US$241 billion
• Latin America: US$92 billion
• Middle East & Africa: US$87 billion

⁵Mobile Health – Enabling Healthcare is a global study on the potential of mobile health services and solutions up to 2017 by the GSMA and PwC. It will be available, in full, in December 2011.

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as the Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Congress.

For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the online portal for the mobile communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at www.gsmworld.com.

Media Contacts:
For the GSMA:
Ben Evetts
Tel: +44 (0)7 7879 614 941bevetts@webershandwick.com

Ava Lau
Tel: +852 2533 9928alau@webershandwick.com

GSMA Press Office:press@gsm.org

IDB partners with CANTO to accelerate Broadband Development in Latin America

Seventy–five ICT experts and decision makers including Caribbean Government Ministers, regulators, representatives of regional organizations, operators, suppliers and civil society had open discussions regarding “Accelerating Broadband Development in the Caribbean” during the CANTO-IDB Broadband Forum held at the Hyatt Regency, Miami, on November 7th, 2011.

Placing broadband acceleration at the heart of economic development, featured speaker Amir Dossal of the Broadband Commission ITU, urged CANTO, the leading trade association of the ICT sector in the Caribbean, to continue its pioneering work of fostering collaboration between both the private and public sector to promote growth and economic development in the region. “Facilitating ICT solutions in the Caribbean through innovative partnerships with leading international organizations & private sector (is) the only way to go,” he said.

The Forum organizers, CANTO and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), saw a key outcome of the dialogue being the identification of key initiatives to drive the acceleration of broadband in the region for the public good. Some projects identified included developing broadband specific policies and goals, driving greater usage of the technology by small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and the public in general, creating harmonized solutions for cyber security, creating a baseline map of the present broadband infrastructure, and awareness and training for various groups.

Participants recognized the urgent need to accelerate broadband deployment and adoption in the region to create knowledge-based, smart, digital economies where all citizens have an equal opportunity to participate in the global economy and ultimately improve their quality of life.

Flora Painter, Chief of the Science and Technology Division of the IDB, said that the IDB has a strong mandate to provide Latin America and the Caribbean with technical and other assistance to support accelerating the penetration and usage of broadbandas a critical technology for innovation and as a means to increase productivity, growth and social inclusion, in four main categories: policy, strategic regulation, infrastructure development and capacity building.

Dirk Currie, the Chairman of CANTO, said collaboration with IDB is a key element of CANTO’s mission to connect the Caribbean through ICT, which started in 2008. “CANTO has developed valuable public private partnerships along that journey and we are satisfied that operators, regulators, suppliers, international and regional agencies and governments with whom we dialogue, are all committed to contributing to the positive transformation of the region through broadband,” he said.

The Ministers mandated CANTO and IDB to initially focus on conducting an audit of the broadband infrastructure and regulatory frameworks in the region and developing a proposal for heightening awareness and training of various groups.

The meeting also served as a preliminary caucus for regional stakeholders in preparation for the ITU Summit of the Americas to be held in Panama in 17 to 19 July 2012. ITU, CANTO, CTU and CARICOM have committed to collaborate to identify key projects to highlight at the Summit.

CANTO and IDB have committed to make the Broadband Forum an annual event.

About CANTO

CANTO is recognized as the leading trade association of the ICT sector for shaping information and communication in the Caribbean. Founded in 1985 as a non-profit association of 8 telephone operating companies, CANTO has now grown to over 110 members in more than 32 countries. A Board of Directors appointed by the membership directs policy of the Association. This strategy is executed by the staff of a permanent Secretariat based in Trinidad and Tobago.

IDB. News Releases.Nov 11, 2011