Kathy Gibson reports from Africa Tech Festival – Governments around the world, civil society, and private companies need to work together to enable ubiquitous and secure global connectivity.
This is the word from Jessica Rosenworcel, chairperson of the US Federal Communications Commission, who calls for Africa Tech Festival delegates to aim for digital solidarity.
She shares the FCC’s view of the cross-border opportunities and challenges in cyberspace, and says partnering with African countries will foster interconnectivity that contributes to growth and defence.
“We need to share best practices and new ideas to enable universal connectivity and network security,” she says.
Universal connectivity is going to be largely based on terrestrial networks, but it is becoming clear that to get to 100% coverage, we will need space-based communications to be an integral part of the mix.
“Space launches are no longer a rare event,” Rosenworcel points out. “We are seeing the emergence of a new model, new players, and new technologies coming together to change how we think about space-based communications.”
And space-based communications will be getting a lot bigger, soon.
“We will incorporate space-based communications into terrestrial networks, including into mobile phones so its possible for everyone to have a backup system.
“It will also expand connectivity to the hardest-to-reach places.”
Rosenworcel says this integration of terrestrial and space-based communications will pave the way for a single network future. “It will allow everyone, everywhere to be connected.
“But we need them all to be part of it – fibre, licenced terrestrial systems, unlicenced new technologies, and satellite broadband – all seamlessly interconnecting.”
New space-based solutions will see sophisticated realtime images helping us to better manage vital operations in food security and crisis management, and can even enable things like asteroid mining.
“To make this universal connectivity work, we have got to take on some of the vulnerabilities,” Rosenworcel says.
One of these is the issue of space debris, and new legislation makes it more incumbent on satellite owners to remove unproductive assets from orbit.
The other vulnerability is network security – an issue that is already huge and set to grow further.
“The future will feature more broadband; but the more we are connected, the more vulnerabilities we have. And we have got to address these.”
There are already billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices deployed, and these are going to continue growing. “In the next decade some sources believe there could be 1-trillion devices,” Rosenworcel says. “And we need to ensure these connections are trustworthy.”
The FCC is working with manufactuers to develop a US Cyber Trust mark – a labelling programme to show that IoT devices are certified to meet cybersecurity standards.
“This will help consumers to make informed choices about IoT devices,” Rosenworcel explains.
“We are at a moment in the digital world where we need all states, civil society, academic and technical communities to work together to build a digital future that works for everyone.”
The FCC will also soon undertake the first major comprehensive review of submarine cable policies since 2001, ensuring that the infrastructure that carries transactions worth about $1-trillion a day are secure.
“This is global challenge that seeds global solutions, and the involvement global community,” Rosenworcel says.