ITU Telecom World 2003

October 13, 2003
Emerging markets taking center stage

GENEVA -- Your Majesty, Mr. President of the Swiss Confederation
Mr. President of the Government of the Republic and Canton of Geneva Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To the first ITU Telecom World, of not only the new century but also the new millennium, I welcome you all. I can assure you my welcome is much warmer than the weather.

Every four years we gather in Geneva, the home of ITU for this singular event, that showcases the latest and the future of the telecom industry. Companies from around the world compete with each other to project their capabilities and products. This ITU Telecom is of vital importance as it comes at a time when many companies have been in the doldrums and the avarice and greed of a few have tainted the sector and shaken the credibility of the people in our sector.

We have weathered these turbulent times through hard work and dynamism. Now I am happy to note that our industry is once again among the front-runners in growth, buzzing with new ideas and new companies.

This year, one out of every two exhibitors is exhibiting at an ITU Telecom for the first time. This illustrates how the telecommunication industry is reshaping itself, with a new wave of smaller, innovative companies beginning to emerge.

But the last four years have not only been of gloom and glum. We have had unprecedented growth and expansion as never before.

In 1999 there were around 1 billion lines in the world. Today there are nearly 2.5 billion lines. Yes, in the last four years we have added 1.5 billion lines to the 1 billion we had connected in all the years before.

This is a remarkable achievement, especially as more than a 75% of the capacity was installed in the developing world.

The growth in mobile telephony has surpassed anything we have witnessed hereto. Here also the developing world has provided the biggest markets, with Africa becoming the fastest growing region in the world for mobile communications. In 2001, Africa became the first region where mobile phones outnumbered fixed-line ones. In Morocco, Cameroon and Uganda, mobile phones have a density that is five times more than fixed-line telephones.

These figures make stimulating reading and are fantastic, but woefully inadequate, as there are still more than 1 million villages in the world without any form of connectivity. Many of the poorest of the poor living in the least developed countries are at risk of being isolated and deprived of the benefits of ICT. As various studies show, uneven access to telecommunications infrastructure is one of the greatest hindrances to balanced indigenous economic growth and bringing about socio-economic coherence so vitally important in all round development.

In the present context, I have a slight difference on the interpretation of USO-Universal Service Obligation.

To me, USO means Universal Service Opportunity.

In many countries the average per line revenue of rural areas is higher than those in the urban areas, mainly due to the fact that a single connection has a number of users.

You do not have to create new demand in the world, it is there, waiting for you, in the developing world. Emerging markets are increasingly taking center stage. China is now the largest single telecom market in the world.

Now more than ever, we need to view the communication market from a global perspective. The developing world is becoming the El Dorado of new business opportunities. Three out of four new telephone users connected each year live in the developing world. There are ten times more potential Internet users in the developing world than in the developed world. This is the reason, I remark, that the USO is not a Universal Service Obligation but a Universal Service Opportunity.

The World Summit on the Information Society will be a watershed landmark in the road to shape the future of the information society, which includes all and excludes none.

Yes, in the new Information Society, we must ensure equitable access to all forms of ICT.

On equitable access and the benefits of technology, I would like to share with you a personal experience. It happened just two weeks ago. A young mother wanted to show her 20 months' old son "Thomas the tank engine”. The grand-mother made efforts for a week, but despite all the trouble of wandering in the cold from store to store in Geneva, all she got was fatigue and a runny nose, but no “Thomas the tank engine”.

It came to my mind to look for it in the Internet and in a few clicks I found a store that sold them. I ordered one through the Internet. Only a day after, the grand-mother was pleasantly surprised to receive a call of thanks from her daughter. But that evening I reflected when all mothers in the world would have the technology available to share their happiness and joys with their loved ones.

We, in the telecom industry, have a responsibility to ensure equitable access for all to put a smile on the face of a mother.

I call upon the captains of the industry, policy makers, and regulators to have a universal vision to Reach the Unreached. The industry must look into the future and envisage services which are affordable in local terms and policy makers must evolve rules that facilitate growth and expansion and change those existing that impede them.

Great objectives are not achieved without hard work, persistence and sacrifice. Now is the time to contribute our personal strength to this effort. Let us not be bogged by inertia, hostage to rules, shackled in chains waiting for the next generation to break them, let’s not postpone for tomorrow what can be done today.

Let us try to put a smile on the face of every mother.

Lets Reach the Unreached to help the world Communicate.

Thank you.