FINISHED FILE

ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM
BRISBANE 2023

AUGUST 31, 2023
BRIDGING THE COMMUNICATIONS DIVIDE 
10:00 AM AEST

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This text document, or file is based on live transcription.  Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), captioning, and/or live transcription are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.  This text, document, or file is not to be distributed or used in any way that may violate copyright law.

>> HOLLY RAICHE: Welcome everyone to the next session which we're calling Bridging the Communications Divide.  We're going to say the issue for the Internet is access to the Internet.  It is more than just communications technology.  It is a range of issues.  Many of those have been raised in the past three days.  We will revisit them but start first of all with technology.  Wait a minute.  We're going to do something else here.  
Next slide?  
Okay.  Meaningful connectivity.  There are only two people, not three up here.  Daniel couldn't make it, apologies.  We're missing him.  He was speaking for the First Nations people.  They have a number of issues, language and cultural issues.  Talking about communities in the far reaches of the country.  Difficult to connect with their own additional language and cultural issues. 
So let me introduce Dr. Paul Brooks.  He's Mr. Technology.  We're not going into all of the qualifications say he's responsible for communications in Australia and leave it there.  Dr. Allen the CEO of the arc can, body for communication advocacy for telecommunication.  A range of issues between individuals and connectivity on the Internet.  Myself as policy Chair of IA, when I saw this chart, you can breeze through it, have a look.  I thought it is all summed here.  I have a second look and realize there are probably more issues raised by this chart than answered.  You look at the top line it is Australia.  We look pretty good. 
In terms of Internet users, we're close to 96%.  But what that doesn't tell you is that's actually 95.5% of people with 35% of this country.  That's a lot of empty space.  That is a lot of places where there isn't the Internet.  
You look at homes connected, that is down to 88%.  And that's actually dropping.  If you look at the latest statistics from our own regulator, those numbers are dropping.  Perhaps the most interesting of the indicators are mobile.  And sadly, that is the most important one.  Because nationally as well as internationally, people are using mobile phones.  They are not using home connections.  Home connections are dropping even in Australia.  
Certainly in the world.  People have mobile phones before they have home phones.  And sometimes before they have homes. 
So that doesn't tell us very much.  We're taking it looking at high speed broadband.  Paul will say we don't need it anymore.  He will explain why he says that. 
(Chuckling)
Fixed broadband, the cost.  It is almost becoming irrelevant because people as I say are looking for mobile broadband.  There is some interesting statistics, too.  They're forward looking.  I'm looking at Internet users in primary schools.  The most interesting wasn't Australia.  It was Cook Islands.  100% of users in primary and secondary which the kids are using in a way not true in other countries. 
So if you look at this chart, it can tell you about the divergence of facilities of access but also tell you about the trends.  The most important thing it can't tell you is about mobile ownership and access, which are perhaps some of the most important statistics.  
There's one statistic that just isn't there at all.  This is a cartoon that Paul provided to me.  I will read it if you can't. 
Let's just say a middle‑aged lady going up to the information hub saying okay, one more time.  Go home, log on to our website from your computer, create an account, purchase your ticket with your credit or debit card.  Download the ticket to a smartphone, then come back at the allocated time.  Just part of what easier and more convenient don't you get?  
That is a way of saying that increasingly, schools, Governments private enterprise is relying on us and our access to the Internet and it is not always easy.  One of the sessions very early in the first day was talking about coding and the fact that increasingly people are using the Internet and our alleged access to it to provide us with services that are impossible to access.  
If you are talking about bridging connectivity, one of the most important things is coming up with systems that work for everyone.  You can talk about your mum accessing the bank, but there are many stories about systems that are supposed to work that rely on us to make them work and they don't.  That is part of the connectivity story. 
But we will start with Paul.  This is something that came out of U.N. study looking at connectivity.  And indicating that connectivity is more than just access to a transmission.  It is all of the issues involved in access.  Yes, it is about infrastructure.  But it is also about things like cost.  Cost of the service.  Cost of the equipment.  It is about the device itself.  Is it usable?  Can you buy it somewhere?  Does it work for you?  Does it work for you if you have a disability?  Or is that actually shutting you off for connectivity?  
Do you have the skills, and increasingly, a lot of people don't have the skills.  So the transmission system is there.  The skills aren't.  And you are cut off.  And I suppose the last and the thing that has become front of mind for so many people, security and safety.  And is part of the reason people are not using the Internet that it is now scary and not safe.  
So the first issue that Paul will cover is actually getting the connectivity, the transmission.  But then Andrew's next job is to ask the harder question. 
>> Paul Brooks: Thank you, Holly.  I'm Paul Brooks, I have been building telecommunication networks far longer than I care to admit.  My elevator pitch is a built the Internet, people say by yourself?  Of course not.  I have been involved in laying submarine cables around the area.  And working with United Nations on trying to get up a Pacific Internet Exchange for all of the area.  I worked on satellite networks and terrestrial networks.  My work with Internet Australia and irk sock, for the last couple of decades we have tried to bridge the Digital Divide by getting people not connected and getting infrastructure there so they can connect.  Increasingly though, that problem is solved.  And the problems, the way we solved them in Australia, many of them are actually similar to the challenges faced in Pacific Island Nations, some are different.  
Australia as a great proving ground for many of the models of achieving connectivity with the vast spaces with nothing in between, happens to be dirt rather than water.  The challenges are the same for the telecommunication network. 
Submarine cables, most of the Pacific Island Nations are connected by submarine cables used to be the goal was to get a cable to every nation.  Now every nation has a cable.  The concerns are of reliability and resilience.  What happens if the cable goes down?  We saw that with the volcano in Samoa, I think it was.  Cut the cable for many months.  
Challenge of the last five or six years has been funding, connecting a second cable, creating a diverse path.  If one cable breaks, there is another path on cable.  Most were previously connected by satellite.  Satellite is great because you can connect everyone, but the latency, the time delays really restricts the types of traffic and communication you can go over it. 
It also has the unfortunate effect that in most cases the satellite link goes up, then comes down in the United States.  So you have this weird situation where you have a Pacific Island nation of multiple far‑flung islands, where it is easier and higher performance to get from each nation to the United States than it is from each little island within the nation.  Microwave technology is great for bridging places.  On land and over water.  But only really if those islands are within 50 to 80 kilometers or so.  Any further than that, the curvature ‑‑ there are real physics challenges with getting connectivity.  
So connectivity is a requirement for using the Internet, but it is not the only requirement for people to be able to meaningfully use the Internet.  
Until recently as a telecommunications network designer for network satellite is the least favorite option.  It is what you used if you couldn't get anything else. 
In the last couple of years, I have been working with low earth orbit satellites.  Starlink is the well-known one that most people have.  We have it in Australia.  Many are starting to get the licensing for it. 
And it is magic.  It is a game changer.  If your country does not have it, take it from me.  I have been working with it a lot.  It has the benefits of satellite that you can get connectivity anywhere with a satellite dish you can carry in your car, carry it in your backpack.  Connect up to the car battery.  Most of the Ukraine war is run over many Starlink terminals strapped to the side of the tank because most of the information technology and Internet is knocked out by Russia.  I learned about this in a talk last year.  Most are powered by the car batteries, at an Australia conference by clever people in New Zealand that designed a power supply to run the Starlink off that rather than the regular power. 
It combines the connect everywhere aspect of satellite.  But the latency and performance of the link is the same as a mobile phone. 
I have done the trial where taking a standard handset, into the mode and turn on Wi‑Fi.  Connections, runs the sought light, connects back in makes a mobile phone call to your local carrier with performance that is indistinguishable from a regular phone.  It will do that in the middle of the outback to Zimbabwe.  And it is a game changer.  It is important to understand Starlink is only the first constellation.  There is 5,000 satellites out of 12,000 satellites potentially in orbit.  But there are three other low earth orbit constellations from Amazon, from Microsoft and couple others, I can't remember, that will go up over the course of the next five years.  That will introduce competition to drive the prices down.  The main problem with Starlink and low‑earth orbit satellites coming up is not the technology.  It is the cost.  130 Australian dollars a month to run this.  Cost is something that can be changed quickly by Government subsidy, voucher system or by ‑‑ turns out Elon Musk deciding yeah they're good people we will throw them 100 terminals for free which is what they did to get Samoa back online after the volcano with the departments with the signal coming up and coming back down.  A disaster recovery platform like nothing on earth.  Technology in Australia, the regional and rural communications divide, star linking and low earth orbit fixes it.  In Pacific Island Nations where you have far‑flung islands that can't be connected back to the main island locally, Starlink low earth satellites fixes that.  So the technology aspect of connecting is largely solved.  Now it is time to move on to the other layers.  And that is where our Advisory Committee in Australia is starting to move beyond getting the unconnected connected because basically everyone can connect now to the next order of things.  Affordability, devices, skills.  And the cartoon was prompted by my mother, who ran into a challenge with her local bank, trying to make a payment.  Because the bank changed their authentication system and requires her to download an app.  She doesn't know how to download the app.  Can barely use it to make a phone call.  The bank is expecting users to know or be able to get help or have someone to advise them for how to set up the authentication mechanism for a one‑time password, SMS code, something that makes the banking system something that we can use because we're okay with the technology.  But there are people in the community that are not.  And our institutions, our banking institutions, Government institutions are making assumptions that just because an online method is available that they can shut down all the other methods that somebody who cannot access the online method can't use. 
And on that note I will pass on to Andrew.  
>> HOLLY RAICHE: No you won't.  Paul?  Paul, you mentioned that a country has to sign up to Starlink?  So what if you live in a country that hasn't signed up to the satellite?  
>> Paul Brooks: That is a regulatory and licensing issue.  Most countries have a telecommunication licensing regime where you need a license to be a telecommunication provider.  The Starlink system is a telecommunication network.  The system goes up, comes back down, generally in the same country.  Generally, the requirement and the disaster, volcano disaster was an outlier.  That means that the Starlink network provider needs to get a license in your country.  There are many countries where the system is not licensed.  For example, in Papua New Guinea, Starlink is not licensed to operate.  The consequence of that is if you put a Starlink on the ship and it sails out of Australia to Papua New Guinea.  The moment the ship crosses the dotted line in the middle of the ocean where it is PNG national territory, Starlink switches itself over and the boat no longer has connectivity.  It could still communicate, but under law, the system is not allowed to operate in PNG waters.  The Starlink network detects by GPS that it has moved across the boundary and shuts itself off.  The same boat navigates from Australia into the Indonesia strait.  Indonesia doesn't have Starlink licensed to operate yet.  Singapore does.  The moment that same ship travels out of Australia into Indonesia waters through international waters, crosses the dotted line into Indonesia territory in the middle of the ocean.  The Starlink turns off, to the other side.  Into international waters, turns back on again.  They have better connectivity than most people in the capital city in Australia.  Runs 300 megabits per second.  Insane and runs through Singapore.  As they dock in Singapore it continues to operate because it is license said ‑‑ licensed to operate in Singapore.  It is a licensing issue.  If your country doesn't use Starlink, petition the Government to get a telecommunication provider license in the country to operate.  Or one of the other networks, the Microsoft network or Amazon network, project piper, one of those.  As soon as one gets access, the rest will want access as well.  But it is a Government licensing issue.  And that's how it is fixed by not changing the license regime but encouraging your telecommunication department to allow the Starlink organization to get a communications provider license in your country. 
>> HOLLY RAICHE: Thank you, Paul.  Andrew?  
>> Andrew Williams: Thank you.  As Holly mentioned my name is Andrew Williams I'm the Chief executive of the ACCAN.  And we're the peak body for communications bodies in Australia.  We advocate for organizations that create Internet accessible for all Australians.  I spent many years as a navigator in the Australian Navy and during that I spent time in the Pacific and sail a ship from Panama to Sydney to know how much water there is in that ocean.  I have been to a lot of countries we're talking about.  In the previous session talking about Papua New Guinea and others.  I have a good understanding of some of the geographic challenges in the Pacific.  My focus today is really just to follow‑up probably on the last three lines of Holly's slide.  And give some insights from the Australian perspective.  Starting with device availability.  That is a big issue in Australia.  Recently, as about two months ago, Australia launched the Australian digital inclusion index updated for 2023.  I think it runs every two or three years.  And if you are looking at those Australians that are highly digitally excluded or digitally excluded talking about nearly 25% of the population who really don't have adequate access to the Internet.  And also access to utilize the Internet to its full capability.  Devices are a big part of that.  Even as one of the interesting points from the previous session was that it is very similar in Australia.  And a lot of the Pacific countries mobile devices are the predominant means of accessing the Internet. 
And to have a fully digitally included economy, mobile devices don't provide the full utility that is needed.  And yeah.  There is only limited capability.  It is only generally suited for less complex, simple tasks and uses of the Internet.  Very difficult to work and study online.  On a mobile device.  Particularly a mobile phone.  That is something that has really been amplified in Australia over the last two to three years, obviously as we have all gone to working, studying, doing everything online during the pandemic.  So that is a big thing. 
And positively what we're starting to see is a lot more focus on repurposing devices in Australia.  Secondhand devices.  A lot of social purpose.  A not‑for‑profit organization for trying to focus on repurposing.  Ideally Government devices.  We're in Government departments.  Transition their I.T. 
Rather than sending them to landfill or some other way, it is having some better coordination of how to repurpose them and provide a more affordable option for low‑income consumers.  We can really go into the affordability in great detail.  I think Paul touched on that. 
There is obviously environmental benefits to that as well.  So the less we put into the landfill, the more we're assisting the environment.  On a side note we're also keeping a close eye on legislation in Europe where the standardizing the USBC is going to be the standard charging for all devices.  So that is going to have a significant impact.  Oddly enough Apple don't see the funny side of that.  I think that will survive.  That is a big one for us.  The other really big one in Australia is digital skills and the ability to utilize the Internet to its full capability.  And that's an area that is ongoing.  We have a number of organizations working on digital skills for particularly for vulnerable ‑‑ the most vulnerable consumers.  And that would include low‑income consumers.  Senior Australians, really an area where we have a number of fairly significant programs to try to upskill senior Australians.  As Paul touched on earlier.  We have a remote Indigenous communities, probably about 70% of the Australian land mass is in remote areas.  There is a lot of our Indigenous communities that Dr. Fellowston and his work is focusing on the last few years where digital skills and access to the Internet and devices is prominent.  
That is a big one for us.  And there's quite a number of programs on that because obviously the more Australian we get connected and being able to utilize it, the greater economic benefit.  And we're finding that a significant number of Government and non‑Government services, as highlighted by Paul's cartoon are being increasingly driven online.  That in itself creates a whole list of other challenges.  We acknowledge that there will always be a reasonable significant cohort of Australians that don't want to be online and don't want to be connected.  And again, with the previous panel, I think it was ‑‑ I was talking about the situation in UA, having the paper‑based system to support those who do want to be online is absolutely important as well.  We have flagged that with Government and industry.  That while it is great that the majority of Australians want to be connected and do want to access all of the relevance services, whether that is Social Security, whether that is employment opportunities, or anything else, there will always be a significant element who don't or can't or won't want to be engaged in that manner. 
The other really important one on that is very easy to overlook a significant cohort of people with disability.  
And that is something with the digital skills, that is really important.  ACCAN for the last four or five years we ran a program initially supported by Government and then supported by industry and back to being supported by Government to try and provide as much information on the appropriate devices and systems for people with a variety of disabilities.  If you just imagine, you know, with your smartphone, if you are visually impaired, hearing impaired or have some other cognitive issue that makes it difficult to utilize it.  Then what are the products that can actually be utilized for your specific situation?  Finally, there has been very little information on that until we started running our program. 
It is very manual.  There is no automated way for when there are upgrades of the devices or whether it is an Apple or Samsung, there is no automated way to find out what new features are available for specific disabilities.  So we have to work through that systemically and update manually.  The other allied issue related is allied issue is related to website accessibility as well.  We run a grant program. 
One of the grantees a few years ago did a research project on all of the major telecommunication companies' websites and found the majority of them were very difficult to access and navigate for people with vision impairment.  So there is content and accessibility guidelines.  A U.N. standard.  We're advocating strongly for all Australian organizations not only telecommunication companies but everybody in Australia should be adhering to the guidelines.  And before I came to ACCAN I had no idea it existed.  Now it is an integral part of what we do. 
Even our Board papers, I have one Director that is vision impaired and another coming on that is hearing impaired.  Just reviewing all of our internal systems and processes to make sure we don't forget that really important element of our cohort that has a disability. 
And finally before I hand back to Holly, security and safety.  Mostly input but scams is insidious.  Doesn't matter in Australia or anywhere else, scams, the latest data in Australia is over $4 billion has been last in scams over the last 12 to 18 months.  That number is not likely to go down in a hurry.  Coordination across all the different bodies has been a real challenge in Australia, but finally under our new Government in power now for 18 months we have got an overarching coordinating structure together called the national antiscam center.  The education is a key part of that.  There is legislation.  There is voluntary codes that are successful in blocking scam texts.  And mobile phone calls and landline calls.  We're finding it is pushing scams to other digital platforms.  WhatsApp, Messenger, apps having education and redress action plans across all the different organizations, whether it is competition and consumers and Telcos.  The banks are a big part of that as well.  Most of the harm comes from people transferring money.  And then you have the blockchain industry as well.  A lot of the scams we're finding are happening over crypto currency as well.  
So that is a burgeoning issue in Australia with the national ID scam center is up and running probably only six months.  We're really confident we will start to see some coordination and make it difficult for the scammers.  If we can disrupt their business model it will go a long way to addressing that. 
It is relevant in this Forum too because we're finding a lot of the harm and hurt with scams is again, in our most vulnerable cohorts.  Our Indigenous Australians and low‑income Australians and probably our seniors as well.  I think that has got some relevance in this fora.  
In the interest of time, Holly, I think I will shut up.  
>> HOLLY RAICHE: Thank you, Andrew.  And for information about a lot of the stuff that ACCAN does, it is ACCAN.org.au.  I won't give you Paul's address.  Any further questions or comments before I take questions.  
>> Paul Brooks: One thing that is important with action perspective but not to do with telecommunication.  A lot of providers get a bad rap because of concerns about reliability.  Most of the reliability issues we see generally due to problems with the underlying electricity supply.  We saw that in Australia with the severe bush fires a few years ago where a lot of the inability to communicate including amongst the emergency services crews themselves were because the telecommunication infrastructure is inherently relying on the electricity network.  Many of the mobile phone towers rely on generators.  Generators run out of fuel.  In a bush fire emergency you can't get tankers in there.  They run for two or three hours and turn off as well.  The crews couldn't get in to replenish the generators.  Much of the infrastructure didn't have generators.  Something like Starlink as a portable system needs power to run.  As soon as your phone runs out of battery without local electricity you can't recharge the phone or run the radio.  The battery runs out of the transistor radio.  All information stops. 
A lot of the resilience and improvements for telecommunications availability and making it more reliable actually comes down to making the electricity more reliable.  I'm pretty sure Australia is not the only country where that is true.  Thank you.  
>> HOLLY RAICHE: Thank you, Paul.  Just going back to the theme.  The theme is actually connectivity.  As the chart, which we have lost now, pointed out that there are many aspects of connectivity.  It is not just actually the convention.  It is all of the other stuff that gets between you and connecting.  That's what we are trying to address.  Again, ACCAN is part of that.  And there is other information you can access as well. 
We have a little bit of time left if anybody has questions for Andrew or Paul about connectivity?  
If not ... okay.  We have answered all of the questions?  
>> QUESTION: Thank you.  Thank you for the wonderful presentations.  My question comes on the affordability part.  Probably because of different markets, but I'm Brian.  I'm from the islands.  2019, we just have our first submarine cable that landed in 2019.  But I think everyone is complaining that affordability is coming down as promised.  Is there any reasons as to why from maybe in theory?  Thank you.  
>> Paul Brooks: Thank you for that.  I'm familiar with the cable that was cable built in fact by the organization that I'm currently working my day job with.  But that cable from the Samoa islands comes into Sydney.  I suspect there is a number ‑‑ the reasons that prices haven't come down as they might have been promised largely come down to lack of competition.  So there is one cable is on the Solomon Islands.  The operator of the cable can charge what they like.  When you get two cables or three cables or two cables and another method of communicating such as high performing satellite.  Once you get competitive tension, it is amazing how quickly the wholesale prices come down.  In Solomon Islands and is there more than one telecommunication provider to go to for service?  Is there competition amongst the infrastructure providers?  Are there multiple organizations permitted to dig trenches for fiber?  Or is everybody buying their services or all the Internet Service Providers buying wholesale from the same group?  Often a Government‑owned group in many of the Nations. 
Different islands Nations have different degrees of competition and different degrees of deregulation in the systems.  In Australia, all of the telecommunication providers are all private organizations.  Some listed on the stock exchange.  Not Government owned.  Some other Nations the telecommunication is the old model with the Government department. 
When there is only one, there is no incentive to reduce prices because that goes straight to reducing their ability to pay generally far too many employees.  That is what we saw in Australia.  With Telstra.  Telecom Australia.  I suspect it will be related to that sort of area.  The infrastructure is there.  The communication is there.  The bandwidth is there.  It is a market structure issue that might be holding prices up higher than they might otherwise be.  
>> Dr. Allen: Nothing. 
>> HOLLY RAICHE: Any other questions for Paul or Andrew?  
>> QUESTION: Keeping on with the submarine cables, Jonathan Brewer from New Zealand.  Aside from the case of the Solomons and the Coral Sea cable network, the rest of the Pacific Islands have cables they have taken out loans to purchase. 
Now, they need to charge what they are charging on the cables to pay back their loans.  The Governments are heavily invested in the cables.  They're the ones who owe the money.  So they don't have incentive to allow competition from satellite networks because they would reduce the ability to pay their loans.  Any solutions here?  
>> HOLLY RAICHE: Australia had some of the very same issues, moving from one competitor to many competitors.  And let's just say it was a bumpy road.  We got there.  But some of it wasn't very pretty.  
>> Paul Brooks: (Sighs) things are always muddy when it comes to money.  Being an engineer you can dig a hole, throw in conduit, provide services and connect people that didn't get a signal before and do wonderful things.  Provided the funding is there and provided smart ways of sourcing the component so you are not charged too much.  Submarine cables are extremely expensive, as you well know.  Talking around the Pacific Islands area, a typical submarine cable is in the area of 80 million U.S.
Along one from Australia to the U.S., 250 to $300 million for a cable.  It lasts 25, 30, 35 years with almost infinite bandwidth, as long as you upgrade the equipment connected on the ends of it, you almost never fill it up.  A cable retires because it is obsolete based on another cable running parallel then the cable will stop working.  But if it is funded by debt and funded by loans.  A lot of the loans are funded by the World Bank.  And U.N. and Governmental processes are not necessarily done in the private market.  Mostly.  And when that happens, there are avenues if someone petitions enough for the debt to be forgiven and wiped off.  That debt and financials and balance sheets, things are funny things where if you have the right accountant and financial machinations, you can make amazing things happen with the stroke of a pen.
Is easier to do that than get a cable laying ship and lay something along the bottom of the ocean in several months especially now when most cable ships are utilized for other projects.  The only solution I see is to get the debt forgiven.  In some countries, it is an election process where the population speaks to the popularity of a Government that doesn't allow competition.  And the Government finds itself getting voted out of office for not providing communication infrastructure where the population thinks they need it.  Or not providing basic healthcare.  Telecommunications is as important.  Connection to the Internet is as important as good health, clean running water, good education.  And a Government that can't provide comparably low costs in all of those things compared to comparable nations is likely to find itself on the wrong end of the population's ire.  The more that happens the better. 
>> HOLLY RAICHE: I'm not sure that answered your question.  Is it something you would like to talk about offline?  It is a real answer.  
>> QUESTION: (Off mic) 
>> HOLLY RAICHE: Thank you.  Are there any other questions?  If not, I would like to say thank you to Andrew and thank you to Paul.  I'm sure both of them will be available, maybe over coffee for 10 minutes.  But thank you all.  
(Applause)

>> Hello, it is me again.  Please remember to put all of the highlight discussions and topics from this session into our platform comment.  Up next in the same room after the tea break, grab coffee and tea.  It will start at 11:30. It is Connecting Communities: Community Radio for Connectivity, Inclusion, Digital Rights, and Freedom of Expression.  Get refreshments, come back in the room starting at 11:30.  Thank you.  
(Concluded)

This text, document or file is based on live transcription.   Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), captioning, and/or live transcription are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.  This text, document, or file is not to be distributed or used in any way that may violate copyright law.