DWF Closing Event - 30 Sept. 2009

Invitation

This is the closing event of the Digital World Forum (DWF) European project.

The aim of this project was to study low-cost ICT technologies to deploy in developing countries, and more specifically low-cost laptops, low-cost broadband wireless infrastructure, and mobile.

At this event, the keynote speakers will underline the potential of one or more of the above mentioned low-cost technologies in development, and the need for future funding and research.

Learn more about the agenda of the day, the speakers, the sponsorship opportunity! An invitation card is available for download (pdf file).

For the press: read the 11 September media advisory (also available in French and Spanish) and the related press kit. Find more in the press corner.

Current Gold Sponsors:

Background / One-page summaries

The DWF project partners have explored the use of low-cost technologies to bridge the digital divide. A status of the achieved work (per work package) is described below.

Mobile Web for development (Work Package 1)

Current situation

• 4+ billions of mobile phones subscribers in the world compared to 1.5 billions of Web users
• in Africa, 22% penetration rate of mobile vs 3% penetration rate of Internet
• mobile phones as an ICT platform has a huge potential
• early stories demonstrated that simple services on mobile phones can improve people's lives. Success stories exist in various domains, including health, agriculture, government services, human rights watch, education, etc.

However:

• still a very limited number of services available at the worldwide level
• still a very limited number of authors and service providers of mobile ict services compared to the number of actors in the development sectors that could improve their impact by integrating mobile technologies in their work
• still a very limited number of people having access to any mobile services compared to the needs

Role of Digital World Forum

Understanding the key blocking factors and action to launch to move to world where:

• people would have access to mobile ict services that improve their life, their inclusion in the society and their income
• actors of the development sector understand the potential of mobile technologies and integrate them very easily in their work

Results

• There are barriers for accessing services by all people:
  
  • high illiteracy rate that prevents the use of textual information
  • for those who are literate, the use of local languages is critical
  • searchability and discoverability of existing and future services is critical

• There are barriers for potential service provider to develop service:
  
  • lack of awareness on the potential for individiual to develop mobile services
  • lack of expertise in existing technologies and tools
  • lack of tools targeted at people without technical background
  • lack of tools for service providers using the mobile platform
  • lack of knowledge in existing reliable business model, and monetization of services

Actions to launch in the near future

• research actions:
  
  • how to make Web content accessible for illiterate people
  • how to add support or languages not existing in the ICT world today
  • exploring new concept of discoverability and searchability, such as widgets

• support actions:
  
  • raising awareness in the development community
  • developing technical training on mobile technologies at the University level, at the development actors' level (NGOs, development agencies, ...), and at the entrepreneurs' level
  • developing training on existing business models and monetization of services

• Development actions:
  
  • investigate existing tools in voice, mobile Web and SMS technologies; identify gaps; and launch development actions
  • investigate the potential of mobile phone as an authoring platform in different techonologies
  • investigate the potential of mobile phone as a delivering platform in different techonologies (P2P concept)

Low-cost Access Devices (Work Package 2)

Current situation

• Personal Computers (PC’s) are the most widely used vector of deployment of Internet and Web Access, in addition to being used as standalone or network computing or information access devices
• Not an affordable option for people in the developing world
• Low cost information access device initiatives exist (for example, XO created by the OLPC initiative)
• Numerous EU players working on components

Role of Digital World Forum

• make a state-of-the-art survey on the list of initiatives working on a low-cost information access devices and its components and their stage of development and deployment.
• identify EU actors that could have a role in such initiatives, and eventually defines the potential actions that could help these actors, and the EU in general, to have a more proactive and visible role in that domain.
• leverage feedback from future customers (Developing Countries) of low-cost information access devices by offering a global forum for African and Latin American stakeholders.

Results

• The imperative for landing devices at an affordable cost to the developing world is yet to be achieved
• The higher cost for performance amongst currently available commercial low cost information access devices may be clarified by the design principles of these devices
• There is room for further investigation to find out what is valued by prospective buyers in respect of device applications in order to exploit opportunities for creating new market space for low cost information access devices based on the blue ocean strategy. Existing EU expertise in the area of components can be harnessed in this regard
• Identify the developmental applications to which such devices may be applied innovatively at affordable cost
• Need of relevant applications and to take into account the “global” cost of the access: quality in the context of Low Cost tools refers to design them in a way to minimize expenses of maintenance, electricity consumption and software

Low-cost broadband wireless infrastructure (Work Package 3)

Current situation

While Africa as a whole is characterized by a very low penetration rate of fixed networks (e.g. 0.7% in Senegal, 3% in Cameroon), a significant and rising part of the population owns a mobile phone: 25% on average. Both the rurality of the population and its insolvency is acting as a brake upon prospective deployment of fixed infrastructures taking into account the huge investments necessary to install wired solutions. A growing set of alternative wireless technologies have emerged or are emerging and could be used to serve the local loop: WiFi, WiMAX, CDMA, HSPA, LTE, etc. These technologies raise hope for ambitious broadband access roll-outs through contained capital expenditure, so that a consensus has emerged that mobile broadband will take the mass market in Africa.

Role of Digital World Forum

At first analysis, none of the candidate technologies listed above is likely to be in a position to fit all situations. The purpose of DWF/WP3 is to provide a thorough technical evaluation of existing or emerging wireless technologies, to identify main roadblocks and key research challenges, and to define appropriate initiatives to be undertaken at EU level in the next few years, so that broadband Internet can be deployed on a large scale in Africa and Latin America.

In terms of access technology, although there is no "killer" technology, the landscape seems to be stabilizing on a global scale, with LTE comforting its position as the top next-generation mobile broadband system. IMT-Advanced systems (WiMAX 802.16m, LTE-Advanced) appear to be valid candidates for future deployments in emerging markets, making leapfrogging 3G to 4G a legitimate option for telecommunications operators. With regard to infrastructure, a combination of solutions is privileged, with a preference for fibre wherever possible, with microwave as a second choice and satellite an option for the remotest areas.

Actions to launch in the near future

A technological roadmap is being constructed, which will elaborate on a number of recommendations and research directions to be explored in the near to medium future. The document, which will be released in August 2009, will address the following five subjects:

• Infrastructure sharing: the analysis will be conducted on the various network levels, i.e. backbone, backhauling, access network, facilities and equipments, including CPEs (customer-premises equipments).
• International connectivity: recommendations will be made to save on international bandwidth, encompassing considerations on local content creation and caching strategies.
• Regulation: different regulatory and tax policy configurations will be investigated, with best practices analyzed.
• Access technologies: promising research directions will be explored in the light of the so-called "digital dividend" (massive amount of spectrum due to be freed up in the switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial TV).
• Energy efficiency: recent developments will be investigated with an emphasis on next generation low-power base stations.