**Remarks of Michael K. Powell**

**Chairman, Federal Communications Commission**

**The Tenth African Telecommunications and Information Technology
Conference**

**(AFCOM 2001)**

**Arlington, Virginia**

**July 18, 2001**

**(As prepared for delivery)**

# Introduction

Thank you Professor Akwule for that very warm welcome and kind
introduction.

Honorable Ministers, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am
honored and delighted to be here today at the 10^th^ AFCOM conference. I
am grateful for this opportunity to share my views with you, to exchange
ideas, and, more importantly, to become acquainted with you in my new
role as Chairman of the FCC as we strive to achieve common goals for our

citizens.

I\'ve had the privilege of meeting some of you already. Last May,
fifteen regulators from Ghana, Uganda, and South Africa participated in
a two-week long technical briefing at the FCC. Since then, I\'ve also
had the opportunity to meet with policymakers from Egypt and Morocco. It
is good to see you all again, and I wish you all a very productive
conference. I commend your commitment to the development of
telecommunications markets and pro-competitive policies in Africa.

# Conference Theme: \"Bridging the Digital Divide\" 

The theme for this year\'s conference is \"bridging the digital
divide.\" The digital distance of Africa from other parts of the world
is real and serves as a warning about the importance African nations and
their policymakers must place on advancing into the information age,
lest they be left out of the next period of economic development and
prosperity.

We are all aware of Africa\'s need for communications and information
infrastructure. You know it first hand. You live it everyday. Suffice it
to say, though, that of all the regions of the world, Africa\'s
situation is compelling in scope and importance and deserves the
continued, immediate attention it is getting. But there seems to be some
good news too.

Last night I came across the headline on the AFCOM web site, which in
big bold letters said, \"Internet usage growth in Africa tops 100%.\" I
just had to read on (or should I say, I just had to \"click\" on to find
out more). The article, which I am sure many of you in this room are
familiar with, reports on a statistics from BMI-TechKnowledge\'s
\"Communication Technologies

Handbook 2001\" that show that Internet use and cellular telephony are
massive growth areas across the African continent. For example, the
article says that the number of Internet users in Africa has increased
from 2.5 million in 2000 to nearly 5 million in 2001; that the Internet
growth rate would be 126% if South Africa were excluded; that all 56
African countries are now online, up from only 11 in 1996; that
fixed-line telephones have increased by nearly 4.5 million lines, from
18.6 million in 2000 to 23 million in 2001 across Africa; and that
mobile phone subscribers have increased by over 50% with 5 million new
users, from 10.8 million in 2000 to 16 million users in 2001.

Africa\'s leaders - and indeed the world\'s leaders - are right to focus
on the challenge of enhancing access to information and communications
technologies and must advance a concerted effort to help developing
countries join this information era. Technology, though not a panacea,
is a tool that offers great promise for addressing some of Africa\'s
most daunting problems. It is terrific that we are beginning to see
progress on this front.

# Changing our focus from \"Digital Divide\" to \"Digital Development\" 

The term \"Digital Divide\" has been used to describe many types of
problems spanning from the lack of basic telephone service - the
oft-cited statistic is that more than half of the world\'s population
has never even made a phone call - to the lack of access to advanced
broadband technology.

I consider the challenge of underserved populations to be very
important - both in the United States and abroad. Like all slogans, the
\"Digital Divide\" helps focus attention on a complex reality. However,
it is less useful in helping us to find answers, and may not fully
capture the breadth of our challenge.

In a world of constant technological change, it does not serve the
Developing World to view the problem as a \"race to parity\" with the
Developed World. The power of technology relentlessly increases at an
astonishing rate. Technology does not and will not stand still. It will
not be \"caught.\" With each new iteration, it offers new enhancements
and new opportunities.

Technology is a tool that can increase the productivity of the person
that possesses it. Unlike a simple hoe or hammer, however, information
and communications technology is not a static advance. It continually
increases the ability of its users exponentially. As all people of the
world get these technologically enhanced tools (as they will), I worry
that rather than bridge a divide, the gulf will widen as better-off
communities advance at even faster rates.

This reality should not in any way discourage efforts to increase
opportunity, however, but suggests that we should not conceptualize the
critical exercise as a chase. Instead of running after the latest and
greatest technology device, we ought to develop effective strategies
that foster the conditions necessary for innovation and the productive,
efficient deployment of technology in our communities.

Today I ask you to join with me to shift our focus from the reality of
\"Digital Divide\" to opportunities of \"Digital Development.\"

# Components of Digital Development 

Digital development must have a number of components: infrastructure,
pro-competitive policies, intellectual capital, and our individual
citizens.

## Infrastructure 

First, is infrastructure. As you know quite well, with any development,
infrastructure is critical. It is only the first step, but a most
essential one, to have a communications infrastructure that is capable
of efficient, ubiquitous and affordable access to digital transmission.

And as we all realize, digital infrastructure is not static. It is
constantly developing and changing. And it comes in many forms and
flavors of both \"narrowband\" and \"broadband\": wireline (twisted
pairs, coaxial cable, fiber optics), wireless (GSM, CDMA, fixed,
mobile), and satellite (GEOs, LEOs). And it includes a wide variety of
consumer and end-user devices, which

empower and enable all people to engage in the type of commerce and
communications that meet their needs.

We also need to respect and understand capital markets. Infrastructure
development and deployment is very capital intensive. Therefore, one of
the greatest challenges is to foster an economic and regulatory
environment that amasses capital that can await a return that may not
come until well into the future. I would suggest that the key, then, is
to get in place a basic

infrastructure that ideally is privately owned by several competing
providers and that has a reasonable ability to migrate with advances.

Moreover, we should focus on the establishment of an environment that
fosters innovation, entrepreneurship and change. These are risk-taking
ventures always, and government policy must focus on lowering those
risks as much as possible in order to foster development. As policy
makers, we need to understand the nexus between technology, appropriate
regulation and capital markets.

## Pro-competitive Policies 

This leads me to the next component of digital development:
pro-competitive policies.

Government policy and the regulatory environment are very important to
realizing the gains of digital development. To attract capital to build
infrastructure and deploy services, the risks of government intrusion
must be limited. More importantly, there must be a perception of a fair,
unbiased and stable regulatory forum. I am of the view that an
independent regulatory body is essential to creating this environment.

I am moderating the online conference entitled \"Regulatory
Independence\" on the ITU\'s Global Regulator\'s Exchange (G-REX). At
the end of June, my inaugural message on \"Defining Independence\" had
been read 262 times and there are a number of other contributions and
questions. If you have not participated in the online conference yet, I
would encourage you to do so.

I also want to assure my colleagues from Africa that, under my
Chairmanship, the FCC will continue to stand with you in your efforts to
create respected, independent telecom regulatory regimes. The FCC has
always provided substantial technical support to our counterparts from
Africa on specific issues such as interconnection, spectrum management,
competition in telecom services, numbering, and universal service.

Since AFCOM 1999, the FCC has made great strides in working in
partnership with fellow regulators in Ghana, Uganda, South Africa,
Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt - to name only a few. Our goal is to work with
our counterparts as they develop the skills they need to promote
competition, liberalize markets, and adopt transparent, pro-competitive
regulatory policies at

home.

In sum, for all of this to come together, regulators need to promote
healthy competition to give our people not just access, but choices. I
believe that we should continue to harness the power of market forces to
respond to business, consumer, and government\'s demand for telecom and
information services. In other words, as policymakers we should continue
to facilitate

competition in the market as one of the prime means of ensuring
\"Digital Development.\" Particularly in areas that are high cost,
underserved, or unserved, aggressive and transparent use of universal
service devices that do not undermine competitive incentives would need
to be considered.

## Intellectual Capital 

The next component is improving technology literacy of our collective
human resources - that is our citizens\' intellectual capital. Tools and
equipment are necessary to be in the game, but having them alone will
not advance one\'s economy, increase productivity and wealth, cure the
scourge of disease and famine, or educate a child. Leaders and citizens
alike need to get

past the simple mechanics of using a computer or just surfing the
Internet. Instead, they must understand the basic workings of
technology - the fundamentals - so that reliance on imports of
intellectual capital can be minimized.

A great man once said that those who are good memorize sentences, but
those who are great know the alphabet. Our children will need to
understand the alphabet of technology. Our schools and programs have to
do more than train the next generation of clerical workers if you hope
to enjoy the true promise of prosperity of the technology revolution.

## Individual Citizens 

Finally, the last component involves the integration of our citizens. We
need to remember that information and communications technologies are
simply a tool. It must be adapted to our cultures and our societies. It
must be integrated into our lives in a way that solves problems for
people and empowers them. Applications like telemedicine and distance
learning are the goals, not simply owning shiny computers with Internet
browsers. At the end of the day it is all about people and we cannot
forget it.

# Conclusion 

I am sure you will agree with me that the ability to access, share and
distribute information is vital to every country\'s social, political,
and economic development. It is clear that the deployment and use of
information and communications technologies will only improve the lives
of people in Africa and in developing countries everywhere. I look
forward to working with you on the challenges facing us telecom
policymakers in devising creative ways to foster development information
and communications technologies to help our businesses, governments, and
communities to become more effective, efficient, and productive. I also
look forward to seeing how the U.N. Development Program\'s Digital
Opportunity Initiative, which just released its final report, is
received.

I commend AFCOM for bringing together the leaders who are grappling with
similar issues, so we can exchange experiences, discuss what works and
what doesn\'t, and find practical solutions to concrete problems. We in
the United States must play our part to ensure that our success in the
use of recent advances in information and communications technology is
shared in realistic ways with the world\'s less fortunate. We must work
hard to ensure that the benefits of this information revolution leave no
one untouched. This is a challenge to all policymakers in the
industrialized as well as the developing world. We know that the problem
is not technology, it is the opportunity.

Let others make slogans, we have a full agenda of work on \"Digital
Development.\"

Thank you very much.