Dr Peter Tomsu of Cisco Systems explains that the phrase Next Generation Network (NGN) describes an integrated, open network architecture that provides voice, data and multimedia services over the same network. He argues that integrated networking itself is not something specifically new citing Broadband ISDN, then ATM, and Multi Service Networks which all tried to deliver integrated service offerings.
He explains that NGN uses a packet-based network and multiple broadband, quality of service (QoS)-enabled transport technologies to provide services including telecommunication and data services in completely seamless communication.
invisible
Simply put, this means the underlying technology will be invisible to the user regardless of where in a multi-service, multi-protocol, multi-vendor environment the user resides. This is a big advance, since it allows us to decouple service-related functions from underlying transport-related technologies.
NGN offers unrestricted access to different service providers and supports generalised mobility, affording users consistent and ubiquitous provisioning of services. What more would anyone want, just next door RSA, five giants are battling it out (Telkom, Vodacom, MTN, Neotel and Dark Fibre Africa) laying optic fibre networks all over for this very same purpose, the demand out there is massive and the competition to dive down costs and improve quality of service is urgent.
e-Government
But why? Why should we worry about these great innovations and go to all lengths and great expense to improve connectivity? Precisely, what does it matter that quality connectivity has reached the length and breadth of the countryside with no livelihoods attached?
Or is it a case of the rich making their lives even more comfortable at the expense of the poor? (We fund this rollout with our tax Emalangeni). It is at this juncture that as a nation we need to ask the critical questions to make the best out of this investment.
It has been argued that the challenge of using ICTs to fight rural poverty is complex, and connectivity is only the tip of the iceberg. ICTs, such as radio and the newer digital technologies like computers, satellite, mobile phones and the Internet, have a tremendous potential to bring about positive change in the lives of rural poor people in developing countries.
However, to be effective they must be not only accessible, but also meaningful. ICTs in themselves do not guarantee benefits to rural poor people.
- When a woman has to walk hours every day to fetch water, how can the Internet help her improve her life? Even if she has access to the Internet, can she read what she sees on the computer screen? Is the information content relevant to her needs?
- For a girl who can’t go to school, what does e-learning mean?
- Farmers can access market prices with a mobile phone, but if there is no road, how do they use that information?
- For indigenous peoples fighting to keep their land, what difference can a telecentre make?
- If people have no political voice, how can radio help them shape the decisions and policies that affect their lives?
In the past, the nation was promised that e-Government was on the way, years later nothing has been done to reach out to citizens and to make the governing more accessible and accountable to the governed. It is the case today that a job seeker from Lavumisa would have to travel to Mbabane at great expense to access the Civil Service Commission form for applying for employment, similarly a small businessperson with all the tools to mow the grass by the roadside which require little technical know how, has to think twice about tendering in Mbabane for a job to be done in Lavumisa. Crossing the digital divide is not a matter of SPTC and its survival, it’s a national issue that requires deep thinking and deep thought as to how same can be used to transform the lives of all our people and fight poverty.
UYIBIZEMOYENI
Expanding the services sector is by all accounts the way of the future; New Generation Networks will not only make this possibility real but further open the gateways for Swazis to give service to the rest of the world.
In recent years, our governments have been negotiating agreements with the developed countries of the world with a view to expand market access not only in goods but also services.
I have argued then that our small services sector is not yet ready to benefit from expanded market access with countries that have been in the business for many years. It is my considered view that with innovations such as NGN, there should be no reason why Swaziland would not be the hub of Business Process Outsourcing in the region. India, Philippines, Mauritius and others have done it, but their English is not as good as ours.
How then do we start to undo the bottlenecks that hinder growth in our services sector becomes a major question at this time.
In a short while, MTN has shown the way as to how small innovations can bring hope to people who had lost it by simply buying and reselling airtime.
What if the basket of services that can be provided virtually can be expanded, what socio-economic impacts would it have on the lives of ordinary Swazi’s like uboy’bizemoyeni who are doing a good job providing services to their communities?
How can we foster business to business relations with our trading partners in the US and Europe, to better understand their needs and for them to appreciate our shortcomings so that mutually beneficial collaborations can be forged? This solution requires a holistic approach, a whole of government reform process and a business sector that is ready to engage.
Social Security Solution
It occurred to me that Swaziland, like the rest of the world is steadily moving the route where social transfers will constitute a significant proportion of the national budget.
It is clear from the onset that the distribution of elderly grants, farming inputs, ex-servicemen’s allowances, child grants, OVC grants, ARV’s, disaster relief packages will occupy the times and minds of a good proportion of the already bloated civil service, constraining service delivery in other key areas of intervention.
Except for the identification, screening and enrolment of beneficiaries, with the right ICT solution, basically anyone can deliver social security packages given appropriate motivation. With such real time data as would be conveyed through NGN, the same uboy’bizemoyeni model could be used to deliver social security solutions in the homes, by the roadside, at bus stations, schools, clinics and the like.
All one needs is a vendor motivated by a pre-determined slice and a real time platform and device. In an e-government environment, the convergence of networks will mean high levels of security, minimal risk, low transaction costs and efficient service delivery. The need to have free thinking individuals to continue to explore and harness the potential of these gadgets cannot be over emphasised.
e-Tourism
A question has been paused about why the local tourism industry is failing despite exhibiting such great potential; the answer is simple, “failure to integrate the product offering with a previously non-service that has become an essential service”.
Travelling to the rest of the world, one would find that bookings and payments of almost everything is done online. That means going to the website of any hotel, one would know how many rooms are available, at what cost, get brief descriptions of all facilities and even a virtual tour of the hotel.
The same would be the case with national monuments, historical sites, leisure sports and the like; vital information, pre-bookings and payments all through the ICT devises we use daily and the enhancements thereof like internet.
Visiting each one of the Seven Wonders of the World, one ponders as to what thrills the millions who visit these sites daily? I find these to be overpriced and believe that it is the comforts that accompany them on the side that draws the people from all over the world to converge there.
There is no better time than now to cross the digital divide in a meaningful manner. We live in the age of information. The development and proliferation of electronically communicated information has accelerated economic and social change across all areas of human activity worldwide and it continues to do so at a rapid pace.
We need to start criticising elitist policies in both access and education that limits the reach and utility of ICTs for the rural poor such as the view to engage in ICT as a matter of profits and survival. It is therefore important that we view ICT systems in context of the different objectives, and refocus tools and contents towards the particular needs of rural development and food security, including agro-meteorology, production technologies, commodities, credit, land and labour markets, laws and regulations, management, and training, among others.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Thembinkosi Dlamini
Quelle/Source: The Swazi Observer, 14.02.2009
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