The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> JOSEF NOLL: Good morning, everyone and welcome to the IGF session 223 on the award for the first Telecom operator. The first operator giving us affordable access for education, health, and empowerment. And I'm very, very glad to have with me Clair Sibthorpe Sitop from mobile development, Sudik from IEEE connecting the unconnected, Jorge Pereira Perrera from the EU commission, responsible for DG connect, 5G, 6G and whatever is coming up.
Nicholas Nazar from the Internet Society in Tanzania.
Asrat Mulatu from the Internet Society in Ethiopia. Savana our guest of honor from Tanzania and Azay Madil.
Our online moderator is Catherine Kimambo and Jonathan Muringani from the basic Internet foundation.
So the way we organize the session is that we see connectivity is still the challenge No. 1. What we've done in the past is ‑‑ sorry, next slide, please.
We have the collaboration with GSMA to actually address the challenge of Africa sub Sahara 50 ‑‑ sorry, 75 percent of people basically being unconnected. And out of that, the coverage gap is a small 15 percent but the usage gap is a lot bigger, 59 percent. 59 percent don't use the mobile broadband, though they would have the chance to use it. And that has been the question for us, what can we do in the future?
Basically having connected 250 schools ‑‑ next slide ‑‑ we follow an approach of where we say we work together with universities and operators and everyone else to build ‑‑ to strengthen the national research and education network, enable universities to connect and get our students to go out connect schools and together with the operators we then build ‑‑ connect the schools and build the community learning and living labs. These are basically the takeaways and with the next slide.
(Feedback).
>> JOSEF NOLL: I'll just then show you the practical story. Some of our mobiles are interfering. Sorry to that.
How we work with the community.
And you see like Catherine with one of our installations at the schools reaching 2225‑kilometer.
Without any further delay, I will then open up the floor for Clair Sibthorpe, our collaboration partner at GSMA.
Please, Clair Sibthorpe, can you tell us more about M4D and the things you are doing.
>> CLAIR SIBTHORPE: Great. Thanks for having me here and for this great initiative.
I work on digital inclusion and lead digital inclusion gender in the mobile development department at GSMA. We're very much looking at trying how we can ensure that those who are not connected are able to connect and use the Internet to meet their life needs. There's a coverage gap and in our research we're seeing that the biggest challenges is in terms of being able to use it is a lack of affordability handsets and devices and literacy and skills but there's also issues around lack of content, safety and security concerns. I think, you know, take ago holistic approach to both improving affordability skills, improving safety and securing and ensuring relevant content is really needed to ensure people are able to use the Internet to realize the benefit. There is not left behind in our increasingly digital world. I think this sort of collaboration the kind of collaboration that you have been doing and talking about is absolutely critical if we're going to address the multitude of issues and those who are unconnected are disproportionately rural women, poor communities, lower education, and persons with disabilities. So we really need to be focusing on specifically these segments if we're going to ensure they're not being left behind. So thank you very much for the partnership and for the initiative that you're doing.
>> JOSEF NOLL: Thanks so much, Clair Sibthorpe. That was a short, fantastic introduction, and so without further ado, Sudar from IEEE. Can you give us the pathway from standards? What is IEEE doing to connect every single human on this earth.
>> SUDAR: Good morning to all of you. My name is Sudar Dexit. I don't have much time.
So basically I'd like to talk about what IEEE is doing as far as standardization of technologies for rural communication is concerned. Some of you may know that IEEE is a member driven organization which is about half a million members around the world. Stands for institute of electronic engineers.
It has many different divisions. One is standard association. And in the standard association there is organization called new standards committee. So any new standards they'd like to propose they come to committee. And in this committee there is a rapid ‑‑ there's something called rapid reaction standardization activities process. Thereby every idea submitted, it gets considered very ‑‑ in a very short time and it goes to product authorization request phase where it goes into the study group to be made a standard.
So what happens is there is something called rural standards activities program. Within this new standards committee. So all the proposals come here. They get considered as I said before and their four goals of this rural communication interconnected program, one of them is study socioeconomic and regulatory issues related to rural broadband. Other one is existing rural broadband infrastructure. Third one is study normal broadband architecture from 6G perspective and four is to propose new standards.
Just to give an example, this is a new body within the new standards committee. About a year ago we had 15 proposals that were considered by rural communicator standards activity. Out of those 15 which came from around the world, five of them they never showed up during the meeting. So ten were evaluated and they were discussed and out of those ten, one was elected to move forward. To project authorization phase. And that was made into a project called P1962 project. This is the project going forward within standardization as far as rural broadband communication is concerned. Amongst many other ideas people have come with.
And you'd be very interested to hear this idea is about connecting people and organizations in a rural area to broadband infrastructure by utilizing solar panels as optical receiver panels. The idea is people have these solar panels at home and they will act like receivers of optical signals directly wherever they may be coming from. That has been considered to go forward for standardization by the IEEE standards committee. And that was approved only about a month ago and a kickoff meeting of this study group is going to take place on firsts of July, 2025.
So in summary, what I would like to say, that anybody is an individual or an organization is free to submit in their idea or a proposal for standardization to be called a standard by IEEE and I would also like to mention that many of us think that technology is the success but that very not true. To be successful, you need to have the technology, of course. You need to know what the user needs are, what the market needs are and there have to be standards in place. Without the standards no manufacturer will build the products because they're looking for volume to justice any manufacturing process. So standards very important part of the order process to have an infrastructure that will be deployed at a larger scale.
With that I'll stop here.
>> JOSEF NOLL: Of course without Wifi we wouldn't have connectivity, we wouldn't be anywhere. From that one I give the floor over to Jorge Pereira.
Jorge Pereira, you are driving with 5G, 6G connectivity all around Europe and the world. Give us your take on connecting the unconnected.
[PAUSE]
>> JORGE PEREIRA: Good morning, everyone. My apologies for not being there. Thanks for the invitation. I don't know if I have time to present my slides but indeed as Joseph has mentioned, we have been for a long time trying to provide coverage for all in Europe. This is not easy and this is not straightforward because as it was already mentioned by Sudir, the issue is there are market interests that make is investment is not guaranteed namely for the rural areas that Sudir mentioned.
So in the context of our programs we have defined first of all the so‑called 5G action plan aimed at providing access to everyone everywhere not only in the major cities but also across the major transport parts in Europe. This was done already in 2000. This was later expanded in digital Compass of 2021 to make sure that there would be 5G by 2030. This is now a much more precise and tax objective. But it's not only the issue of coverage. It's also the types of services that people will be able to received. We have addressed this in two main areas. In order to cover the main transport parts in Europe we have launched an activity called 5G corridors for cross border connectivity because it is important that the fact that you move from one country to another that you do not lose services and especially for those people living near the borders this is a major issue.
Another activity is ‑‑ centers around the so‑called 5G communities. This started initially as the so‑called project Wifi for all which provided grants for remote communities to be able to provide service to the local community focusing around the so‑called strategic development entities which are schools, hospitals, but ums the firefighters, police, ambulances, libraries. This type of community services are the main of these communities. We went from Wifi for all to 5G for all in this these communities. This represents a significant investment still going on with the objective of providing gigabit connectivity for all households in Europe which ‑‑ all covering not only the major but even all remote outlets across rural areas. The second one is to assure delivery of services and it's not only education and health but it's also safety, public protection and these activities are again mostly in rural areas smart agriculture, the objective being of really promoting these services and addressing the digital divide make sure people can have the full benefits of this connectivity. There are still many challenges ahead. It's not only ensuring proper coverage as I said return on investment does not make this attractive for these sparsely populated areas but really providing these services to these smaller communities ‑‑ what are the costs? Who is going to cover this, all of this makes it difficult one major I would say and critical aspect is the actual involvement of communities because what I mentioned before, the 5G corridors and the 5G communities usually involve municipalities to provide these services, to provide the connectivity in the last mile but in many areas if you're talking about an isolated farm or things like this, we are not talking about communities ‑‑ about municipalities. So how can the community, the individuals really get involved in all of this and the full benefit.
With this I give the floor back to Joseph.
>> JOSEF NOLL: Thanks, Jorge.
I think that brings us back to you, right, because Tanzania is community driven? What is your take?
>> NICHOLAS NAZAR: Thank you, Joseph, for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Dr. Nicholas Nazar and I currently work for the Internet Society and I am also the community networks champion, you know, advocating for connectivity in Tanzania.
I think one of the things we need to realize is there is an issue of investment for the shareholders and also an issue of digital divide in rural and Tanzania. And the number of Telecom areas in Tanzania is still very high because of the issues of investment on infrastructure and you know this exacerbates the number of people who are still not connected to the Internet and the reality on the ground is for example if you are in the commission city of Tanzania as you move, maybe 15, 20, 30 kilometers away from the capital instead of 5G you start experiencing 3G, 2G, and sometimes no G.
The issue like I said is about cost of investment issue is very high. Issue of also even in those areas where people are connected the Internet is still unreliable. Also we have another issue in there of digital literacy. We have to understand that the infrastructure is very expensive much as we would like the Telecom operators to be everywhere, the issue is really investment in infrastructure I wanted to highlight one of the impact we have working together with Joseph and basic Internet foundation to connect. We are able to connect schools using a very simple basic equipment and the appeal is for those who believe in holistic approach to the Africa digital future to invest in social programs like this one and this will enable as many schools to connect at a time and with that we can bring hope not only to the schools but also we can connect the community around in terms of health and agriculture as well. So with that I give mic back to you, Joseph.
>> JOSEF NOLL: Thanks so much, Nicholas Nazar.
And I think the viewed you from Tanzania that is the views where ‑‑ which might be slightly different in Ethiopia. So Asrat Mulatu, could you tell us what the situation is in Ethiopia.
>> ASRAT MULATU: Good morning, everyone, and thank you Joseph for inviting me and raising this very critical question. So the issue of this, you know, scaling up stakeholders involvement in providing affordable connectivity for communities needing multi port strategy because it's very critical. So because everyone has its own interest.
So one of the key point would be, you know, policy and strategy and regulatory frameworks. So in Ethiopian communication authority is here is creating these policies, tax breaks to which they're already finalizing the framework and the public‑private partnerships which are very critical. So this could have it all give it sales connectivity other stakeholders. Besides that, we are able to demonstrate projects and pilots in these under served areas as a proof of concept so they can see. We can have some kind of financial models, blended financial models that can deal risk investments for ISPs and other, you know, multistakeholder as we go.
Another one is very important local ownership. You have to engage local admins and community associations early in the process so that, you know, where local buy‑ins. In the long‑term it will bring new payments for services as they enjoy the different aspects of it. Then that advocacy is very important because one of the problems I've seen in Ethiopia is lack of awareness what initiatives could be in committee and under served areas. We have to demonstrate the regional investment which is very important and what kind of social value of connectivity can bring, okay? So this needs evidence based arguments and clinical evidence so that we can build political confidence which is one of the challenges here in Ethiopia.
The other one is it will build financial momentum so that it can, you know, do ‑‑ expand the pilots to other places.
So somebody, you know, this feels very critical especially in Ethiopia we're under connected in many places. Only connect activities in rural areas. That is bigger strategy in Ethiopia and not much of the population is living in these areas unfortunately and multistakeholder approach aligning policies show casing impact and mobilizing mechanisms so we can build grass roots ownership along the way, very aspects so this make it back on these advancements so that includes engagement is brought. So these are the fact in Ethiopia. Thank you.
>> JOSEF NOLL: Thank you so much, Asrat Mulatu.
and we talked so much about digital public infrastructures here at the IGF and of course Azay Madil you from GSF you are heavily involved in all these discussion and policies. Could you give us your contribution or your take from the GSF in this area of connectivity and infrastructures and so on a
>> AZAY MADIL: Thank you, Josef Noll. And first of all, thank you for having me on this panel and you know that I'm a fan of your work. I totally believe that access to quality education and healthcare is not only a privilege but it's kind of a fundamental right. It's a fundamental human right yet across many parts of the world we see that especially in Africa these essential services still remain out of the reach of millions of people. Due to the high DOS, infrastructure gaps and geographic barriers. This is where the concept of affordable access education and health becomes crucial. It really focuses on breaking down these barriers by leveraging inclusive low cost solutions. At the forefront of the German development cooperation which is supporting our partners countries to harness digital public infrastructure and in that regard we have so many examples to share, several initiatives which have been taken with the time. I would like to talk about a few of them.
Let's talk about education. Digital learning platforms, digital solutions such as those are coupled with the offline and online approaches to provide access to the remote communities and our major platform like ‑‑ which is already providing services for the millions of learners across Africa and free access to ‑‑ people can gain free access to hundreds of multi lingual courses aligned with the local needs and national standards.
Not only this, but in healthcare e‑health and M health including mobile apps and digital health records our smart Africa partnership that also advances on data governance and health data sharing frameworks across the continent. These efforts are to building cross border and digital infrastructure that supports not just health system but also broader digital solutions.
Strategic partnerships are very essential for ‑‑ with global tech firms and sport ministries of education and integrating digital learning international strategies, these collaborations ensure not just innovation but alignment with the national policies like develop DDP program to cofinance with private sectors for the innovations that promote affordable access to essential services. I'm sorry, my throat is a little bit dry. So I will keep drinking.
For example, the startups and companies receive support to develop scalable solutions and develop DDP program.
Work is guided with a couple of principles, which are some of them I would like to highlight. Let's say the local ownership. We totally believe that the programs are codesigned and with the local governments and communities for long‑term impact. And other thing which we really consider is scalability. The initiatives starts small but are designed for the national and regional scaleup. Gender inclusion special focus for the woman and the young for the marginalized groups cross sector partnership like the civil society, startups as well as with the multi lateral cooperation.
With these examples I would just like to conclude here my discussion and I would say that affordable access for education and health is more than a development objective. It is a commitment to dignity, equity, and opportunity.
With digital tools, strong partnerships and community driven solutions, GSED is really helping to ensure no one is really left behind.
Thank you.
>> JOSEF NOLL: Thank you so much. Your commitment to dignity and point out the opportunities Zuweina we worked together for the last three, four, five years and we went to many downgrades. But at the end of the day I see really the highlight. So I'm very pleased to have you the guest of honor. We didn't get you over here yet but we'll do it symbolically afterwards. So please tell us about the journey and your commitment from vary com Tanzania to launch the affordable access.
>> ZUWEINA: Thank you for having me. It's unfortunate that I couldn't be there with anybody in Norway but happy to be able to join online. That's the power of technology nowadays.
But in a nutshell I wanted to highlight with regards to our work as Tanzania foundation first and foremost we believe in the power of partnerships and that in itself speaks volumes of what we have been able to do for the last 20 years. This year the foundation turns 20 years and we have been able to improve more than ten lives across health education and economic empowerment. This is because we believe in the power of technology and connecting people to a better future but if I may I'd like to touch on some of the work when it comes to affordable access as well as connectivity in the education sector. In the past we have able to provide and connect more than 250 schools across Tanzania providing ICT hardware building computer labs as well as tablets and routers so that can be connected to the Internet but also access thousands of materials and resources for the students and educators as well as provide affordable and reliable Internet access to them all. This has enabled access to digital learning materials and platforms that have improved education outcomes. Our recent impact shows that there significant improvement in educational in the schools that have supported but over and beyond that we've also understood that there are gaps and most of them are results of digital literacy specifically on the teacher training side of things and last two years we've shifted our focus towards the digital skills and empowering teachers with the right skills and literacy and learning tools to be able to serve the students but also further community to the communities on the importance of that. We've expanded school connectivity to underserved and rural areas and this is through partnership with the likes of our universal communication access fund as well as the World Bank and the government of Tanzania through the private partnership program that we do have ‑‑ sorry, public‑private partnerships program that we do have called digital Tanzania project and that in the last three years all Telecom operators have been able to deploy more than 700 towers in rural areas to connect. We've gone over and above what we have committed but also we are embarking on a mission to upgrade our network to 4G coverage to ensure that what Dr. Nicholas Nazar had mentioned when someone has 5G coverage in the city how do we also make sure or ensure that someone in the rural area has the same access and not necessarily maybe 5G but at least 4G and not. 2G anymore. We've collaborated with many partners, sitting on the panel there with Africa child program but as of recent we've signed a memorandum of understanding with Tanzania institute of education to 0 rate their platform which provides resources to teachers in 184 centers but we've also connected all those learning centers to ensure that they do get timely updates on their platforms as well as scaling affordable Internet solutions and maintaining the infrastructure there. Our purpose in general is to drive digital divide in education and to bridge the digital divide in education and this we do by entering that every student and teacher has tools and connectivity to thrive in additional world but also to advance Tanzania's vision of inclusive technology enabled learning for all. On investments of infrastructure where Tanzania as a country I believe we have been making many strides over past years. If I look back ten years to where we are today, there has been significant investment on infrastructure. There's still significant hurdles we need to crossover, everything every from power to rural roads so these towers can be maintained and ensure we provide the connectivity needed to the citizens and to the public in those areas. Digital literacy has been at the core of what we do and we see significant improvements with regards to the programs that we run.
And last but not least affordability of devices. I believe there's quite a lot of interventions that we can put in place as Telecom placement but also as government. We do enable access usage is still very low this is because of the small percentage which goes to smartphone penetration nowadays through smartphone access also drive further the improvement of educational outcomes but also access to different facilities from multiple sectors.
Last but not least I'd just like to conclude by thanking Joseph and everyone in the room and also insisting that partnerships are key if you want to see a digital world or a thriving digital world that we want in place.
Thank you very much, Joseph.
>> JOSEF NOLL: Thanks, Zuweina. It's a bit difficult but we want to really acknowledge the partnership which you brought across and for this partnership we have Sudei from IEEE we have Clair Sibthorpe, we have George from the EU commission and we'd love to symbolically give you this one to ‑‑ over to Catherine who will carry it, hand carry to Tanzania. So congratulations to the award.
[APPLAUSE]
>> JOSEF NOLL: And I hope that your inspiration to us here in the room for connecting the 250 schools at a prize of 60,000 shillings for a ten megabit per second link without data cap which is about $22 to connect a school with unlimited data. That has really been the game‑changer in Tanzania and we really hope this is scaling up to the whole of Tanzania.
Thank you so much.
Having said that, if you have a question this is time for you to jump in. You have so much expertise here. Please go ahead and bring your questions across.
The mic is over there and the online questions is also here.
So while we have one participant going to the mic and we take one online question Asrat Mulatu that is to you and you Zuweina, what are the policy frameworks in Tanzania to actually foster the school connectivity? Do we have specific policy frameworks?
>> ASRAT MULATU: I probably would talk about what is happening in terms of recognizing the framework to recognize small operators.
Can you hear me?
>> JOSEF NOLL: Yeah.
>> ASRAT MULATU: Okay. In terms of recognizing small operators like, for example, community networks or community Internet service providers. The regulator has come up with, you know, the framework to see how they can accept, you know, small operators. That is the one that I know of. But we have the Tanzania digital economy framework, 200034. That one also recognizes the importance of connectivity, especially in the rural areas. If at all, you know, Tanzania and Tanzanians have to realize the fruits of the digital economy.
>> Okay. So the question is ‑‑ goes to Zuweina. It addresses why Internet service providers and operators, why service providers and operators engage in such initiatives? And what are their potential benefits?
>> ZUWEINA: Thank you, Catherine. I would start with our why, with regards to why we engage in such initiatives. Vodacom is embedded in our purpose and our purpose ‑‑ we are a purpose led organization and our speaks on one, empowering people, two protecting the planet and three maintaining trust. Throughout across all our commercial activities purpose is embedded, whether it's through financial inclusion, accessibility or ensuring that our actions, activities are not harming the planet and what we do to ensure there's restoration and reforestation as well with regards to our activities. That is why ‑‑ that is our why. We believe that as a technology company as a telecommunication company we can connect people to a better future.
On the aspect of what is our ‑‑ what is the benefit? One is that having increasing digital literacy, increasing digital skills where we're seeing an up‑tick of data services, but also on the other end is that to be able to reach people, improve lives we need to be a digitally connected world but also access to educational resources, access to health facilities. We've worked across these three different pillars of health, economic empowerment, as well as education and we're receiving remarkable improvement in all the region that we work with as well as better improving rights of Tanzanians. We believe also it is our duty as an investor in the country to ensure that our work improves the lives of Tanzanians.
Thank you.
>> JOSEF NOLL: Someone wanted to ask a question from the room. Please introduce yourself. We only have two and a half minutes left. So very short answers, please.
>> Thank you very much, Joseph. My name is Barak. I chair the association of community networks in Kenya and I have partnered with basic Internet as well in community in Kenya.
Some quick points. First congratulations for the showing the way and working towards lowering the cost for connectivity.
Now quickly, in addition to the issues that have been raised, evidence based research is key in addressing this particular topic of affordable access for education and health. One of the learnings from the projects that I have done with the basic Internet foundation is measurements using the network cell info light. This has been key in identifying areas that do not have an adequate signal that can provide meaningful access to the community. As we speak there are still approximately 70 percent of sub Saharan Africa that does not have access and still using 2G. While the global north has already moved out of 2G or some of the countries that are at the sunset phase of 2G. This is an area that we need to deal with.
Secondly, it's capacity building targeting the government, targeting civil society, private sector players and academia. We attempted approaching Kenya. Only succeeded with 45 schools because the government said education is free. So why are you talking of charging the schools yet you know that we have a approximately framework that education is free. Finally is the issue of advocacy which we are doing here. I'm happy to see the Internet Society. I'm also a ebb am of the Internet Society chapter and the association and the chapter and many other activities are engaged in advocacy to make sure we create more awareness in this. Lastly the definition of meaningful access varies these terms right now in Kenya aspire education framework ‑‑
>> JOSEF NOLL: You have to conclude we only have ten seconds.
>> Meaningful access is 50MB while in some environments or contexts we are talking ‑‑
>> JOSEF NOLL: Sorry, that was a long closing remark. I think we covered all the points. If you have more points, I'm very happy that you joined us. Thank you so much and for this one I close the session and again, we are looking forward to have more Telecom operators to join us and ISPs on the path for affordable access for education, health, and empowerment.
Thank you, everyone.
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