Asia Telecom 97: Convergence of telecoms and the Internet

By Zatni Arbi

SINGAPORE (JP): Could there ever be a better place to hold international telecommunication exhibitions and symposiums than Singapore?

I don't think one would be easy to find one. Especially today, as this island country is increasingly bustling and hustling with its national program called Singapore One, a very focused project that aims at turning the state into an intelligent island by the end of next year.

And Asia Telecom has been the biggest telecommunications event in Asia. The event, organized by the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union (ITU), has been held once every four years in Singapore since 1985. I was very lucky to be able to attend Asia Telecom 97 to get a little taste of what's coming up in the world of telecommunications.

There has been talk of holding this special event more frequently, namely once every two years. I guess the reason for this proposition is the fact that booming telecom development activities in the region, particularly in Singapore, Malaysia and China, are expected to open up more enormous opportunities to world-class telecom vendors such as Alcatel, AT&T, IBM, Cisco, Siemens, Deutsche Telecom, Motorola, NEC, NTT and Nokia.

The responses have been a mixed bag, however, because it turns out that the cost of staging a booth at this event is quite staggering. Even giants in the telecom industry may have to scale down their shows if they want to participate in every exhibition. The decision whether to increase the frequency of the event is still pending.

In this year's Asia Telecom, which took place at Singapore's World Trade Center, 450 companies and organizations from 30 countries participated. The event lasted from June 9 to June 14. Among my big favorites at events such as this, by the way, is always the booths offering free copies of my favorite magazines, Data Communications and Telecom Asia.

High-tech Island

Freebees aside, one very important highlight in this year's Asia Telecom was that Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong inaugurated the pilot project of Singapore One at the opening ceremony. I was not able to enter the forum as the ceremony took place on Monday morning, but fortunately I was able to catch his speech on the TV monitor.

Prime Minister Goh announced that 400 homes would take part in the pilot project. What awed me completely was the fact that Singapore has decided to allocate S$2 billion for the next five years to ensure that every child on the island has access to a PC. This clearly reflects how serious this neighbor of ours is in preparing themselves and their young generation for the information era.

All the 800,000 households in the country will eventually have access to the island-wide broadband communication network. Singaporeans will be able to subscribe either to SingTel for a subscription fee of S$25 per month plus 5 cents per minute charge, or to Singapore Cable Vision (SCV) for a flat S$35 monthly fee and get a bevy of services, including education, entertainment, shopping, government and business. Whew! I just couldn't help wondering Indonesia can also enjoy this kind of very affordable and highly enabling high-tech facilities.

Telecom is the Key

As this is an event organized by the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union, there was an address by ITU's secretary General, Pekka Tarjanne. He reiterated the undeniable importance of communications and information technology for economic wealth and social progress, and he cited Singapore as an obvious example.

He said three important developments had taken place in the telecom world.

First, there is now an agreement among those in the highest level of government and industry that "universal access to basic communications and information services will be the key to sustainable global development in the twenty-first century".

Second, it has been recognized that the best way to ensure access to telecommunication service is "to liberalize markets for -- and promote trade in -- communications and information technology products and services".

Finally, he drew attention to the birth of the first truly global telecommunications systems, in particular the satellite- based ones. These systems will provide all kinds of communications services anywhere in the world.

In general, we know that everybody has long recognized the crucial role of telecommunications in development. Unfortunately, within some individual countries, there are still discrepancies between what is said and what is actually done in the attempt to capitalize on the technology.

In Indonesia, for example, we still have to face the problem of the lack of the basic telecommunications service, the plain old telephone (POT). Our telephone density remains one of the lowest in the region, and most of the telephone lines are still concentrated in urban areas.

The keynote speech by Christopher B. Galvin, Motorola's CEO, was also insightful. He highlighted the need for regulators to set the rules that give direction to the telecommunication industry. He further underscored that the success of technology deployment was dependent on the proper follow through of these rules.

Big Blue Telecom

What other interesting things did I learn here? First of all, I had the chance to learn that IBM had also become a major player in the telecommunication industry. Their Telecommunications and Media Industry division is just one among eleven industries for which they offer their products, solutions and services.

IBM's move into the telecommunications industry is not entirely surprising. As Stephen A. Mucchetti, General Manager for IBM Global Telecommunications and Media Industries, emphasized in his speech at the Technology Summit forum, it has now become impossible to separate Internet from telecommunications technology. Although his company does not get directly involved in building the infrastructure, it was present in this event because it had some offerings for telecommunications providers and Internet service providers (ISPs).

Global reach

Another company that grabbed my attention the moment I looked at the list of exhibitors was Iridium. They are going to put up 66 low orbit satellites in the sky, each of which will circle the earth along the vertical axis. I spent quite some time at their booth, exploring the graphics presentation of the entire universal cellular network using a touch screen and a headphone.

Once it becomes available in a little over one year's time, we'd be able to place or receive a telephone call anywhere in the world using the same handphone with the same phone number. Better still, there is only one bill to pay every month.

When there is a local cellular phone service, the handphone will connect to it. When there is none available, the handphone will communicate with one of the 66 satellites so that we'd never be out of touch.

Another interesting development is the Personal Handyphone System, or PHS. This low-cost, wireless communication device lacks national coverage and cannot be used in fast moving vehicle. On the other hand, the handset is much lighter (as little as 80 grams in weight), offers up to seven hours talking time and 500 hours of standby power.

In Japan, where it originated, the number of subscribers has jumped to more than 7 million since its introduction in 1995. The very good news is that dual mode handsets are now in trial in Hong Kong.

Made by Panasonic, the PHS-GSM handsets will allow us to switch to low-cost PHS connection when in the office or at home, and switch to GSM connection and get connected via any of 150 GSM systems around the world when traveling. With such a compelling potential, it's no surprise that no fewer than eleven PHS players joined force in the Japan booth at the Asia Telecom.

Next month, the PHS MoU Group, which also includes Indonesia, will hold a symposium in Bangkok, Thailand. PHS is really gaining momentum and we look forward to its explosion in this region.

PHS as the wireless local loop (WLL) is also going to be in trial in Indonesia as well. We just hope that as the service becomes more widely available, the cost to users will be truly affordable so that our ordinary people on the street and in the sawah, too, can actually begin to tap the benefits of telecommunications. It's high time that we heeded what Motorola's Galvin said about the need to ensure that regulations really do what they are intended to do.