 | Issue: | Asia-Pacific I 2013 |
| Article no.: | 1 | |
| Topic: | Broadband and learning in Asia | |
| Author: | Rajeev Singh-Molares | |
| Title: | Executive Vice President | |
| Organisation: | Alcatel-Lucent | |
| PDF size: | 238KB |
About author
Rajeev Singh-Molares is the Executive Vice President of Alcatel-Lucent. Mr Singh-Molares is also the President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Asia Pacific region and, as well, a member of the management committee. Mr Singh-Molares is responsible for overseeing the company’s APAC business including China and India and is vice chairman of Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell – a joint venture with the Chinese government. Mr Singh-Molares joined Alcatel-Lucent in 2009 as its Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer; he had previously served as a partner at Monitor Group, a global professional services firm that combines strategy consulting and merchant banking. Before that, Mr Singh-Molares was at Chemical Bank’s Banking and Corporate Finance, Latin America Division.
In 2011 Mr Singh-Molares was appointed Chairman of the World Economic Forum Global ICT Agenda Council.
Rajeev Singh-Molares holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Yale University.
Article abstract
The ITU claims a ten per cent rise in broadband penetration can drive a 1.38 per cent rise in economic growth. Broadband can be a game changer for a country struggling to create jobs, drive exports and balance budgets. Mobile broadband can deliver high quality educational programs to mobile devices anywhere, so mLearning will be especially meaningful in developing countries where the teacher shortage is acute, infrastructure is lacking and resources are few to face the rising demand for education.
Full Article
Broadband network access is driving a global revolution in the way human beings live and work. For some, that means instant access to a world of business information. For others, it’s music and streaming video. It’s easy to think of broadband as a behind the scenes technology and to underestimate its value, but when you think about what broadband enables, its value becomes clear. According to one ITU study, a ten per cent rise in broadband penetration can result in a 1.38 per cent rise in economic growth for a country. Broadband could be a game changer for a country struggling to create jobs, drive export sales and balance budgets.
For a growing number of people around the world, broadband access means a new chance in life; education opportunities that can have a profound impact on lives. The key is to reach the people who need it most, and deliver programs that are easily accessed and affordable. This is where mLearning, the delivery of educational programs over mobile devices, can fill a critical and growing need.
When the possible meets the necessary in education
As Thomas Friedman, author and three time Pulitzer Prize winner says: “Big breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary.”
Current figures show that even if the Millennium Development Council’s goals calling for education for all are met by 2015, 69 million children will remain shut-out of formal education and an additional 774 million adults worldwide will still be illiterate. The majority of these uneducated or undereducated people are in developing countries. Beyond the quantitative metrics, it is widely acknowledged that many young people considered ‘educated’ in fact suffer from significant gaps in the quality of the education they received. This is especially true for the poor, who typically attend schools with low teaching standards and inadequate resources.
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing education today is the global shortage of teachers: the planet will need over two million new teachers by 2015 to sustain the current education model, according to the 2011 Education for All Report. mLearning will be especially meaningful in developing countries where the teacher shortage is acute and where rural areas lack not only trained teachers, but also infrastructure and access to resources needed to face a rising and seemingly insurmountable demand for education.
Broadband access makes it possible to learn anywhere – even in developing, rural regions. The widespread availability of mobile phones, makes it possible, via mLearning, to augment or enhance classroom learning or provide job training to new workers and re-train the existing workforce. Mobile phones make job training possible in even the most remote areas of the world. mLearning can have an incredible impact on places like India and Africa where a large percentage of the population lives in rural, often remote, areas.
Cost is, of course, a consideration. According to a 2011 ITU report, in many developing economies, an entry-level broadband connection costs the equivalent of one per cent of the average monthly income, while in the 19 least developed countries, broadband connections cost more than the average person’s monthly income. Driving down the cost of broadband connections will be critical in the widespread adoption of mLearning.
The link between education and successful economic development is irrefutable. There is a clear case for more inclusive education. With technology you can couple what’s needed with what’s possible, and solve one of the major challenges facing economic development today. mLearning is a logical solution to the digital divide.
Is mass-scale adoption of mLearning possible?
How then can we transform promising mLearning pilot programs into a mass-scale reality?
A number of challenges must be overcome so that mLearning can scale up and develop. For a start, public awareness and visibility of mLearning’s benefits must be increased, public authorities need to develop appropriate enabling policies, ICT literacy has to be improved and teachers trained to take advantage of the new technologies and tools available.
The first step is to develop a mLearning ecosystem to create economies of scale. That ecosystem includes strategic investment in broadband, mobile technology, software and training. It also needs to address development of a collaborative model between government and private sector to determine how broadband network services can be delivered to provide mLearning programs.
Invest in national broadband and 4G networks
Many countries have already realized the importance of affordable broadband for their citizens. More than 90 nations have already embarked on building national broadband programs. Asia is home to 12 national projects that aim to make affordable high-speed broadband and wireless services universally accessible. Our Bell Labs network-modeling research team predicts that initiatives that couple network infrastructure, relevant applications and affordable business models will deliver 36 percent more GDP growth than a network-only approach. Such strategic investments connect people to the digital economy and make services like banking, healthcare, commerce and mLearning available.
Asia is investing heavily in the world’s most extensive deployment of fibre-to-the-home technology. This will give people superfast broadband connections and will boost Asia’s share of global fibre connections; Asia already accounts for 74 per cent of the world’s users.
As part of China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), Beijing has earmarked 1.6 trillion Renminbi (approximately US$252 billion) to deploy a national broadband network by 2015. Behind the ambitious plan is China’s need to meet the soaring demand for mobile broadband access. This demand is fuelled by consumers who have moved far beyond voice and emails, and want to access video, gaming and other high-bandwidth applications. China is now the world’s largest market for smartphones; in the first quarter of 2012, 22 per cent of global smartphone shipments went to China.
Anticipating this demand, for broadband and smartphones, Asia is leading the way building out its fixed and LTE infrastructures compared to other key developed markets.
As more of today’s early trials turn into deployments, the global adoption of LTE is expected to grow faster than previous broadband technologies. We are seeing this across the globe as people, accustomed to broadband at home, grow dependent on broadband in their hands.
In Asia, home to over half the world’s mobile subscribers, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong are already exceeding the predictions for LTE adoption. In less than two years, Korea expects LTE subscribers to go from 0 to 30 per cent of its population. NTT DoCoMo in Japan is currently seeing incredibly fast take-up. They have added over a million subscribers in less than three months. Hong Kong predicts 4G traffic will overtake 3G traffic by the end of 2013.
In October, China Mobile, the world largest wireless operator with 700 mobile subscribers, announced plans to deploy a massive TD-LTE network providing thirteen of China’s largest cities with TD-LTE coverage during the first phase of its LTE network build out. That number will grow to 100 cities by the end of 2013.
The need for education meets broadband – a technology that makes new models possible
China is leading the way and the rest of the world may need to re-imagine the possibilities of mobile technology. China is coupling infrastructure investment with a ten-year digital education plan. This includes developing an education ‘cloud’ comprising more than 20,000 high-quality lectures and resources accessible by PCs, tablet computers and other mobile devices. This push has boosted China’s mLearning market by 60 per cent, making it the fastest growing in Asia.
By combining technology and education, China is increasing the potential of its citizens; education is one of the best predictors of sustainable economic growth. The China equation is promising. We need to see more of these broad programs in other nations too. That will require investment in 3G/4G wireless technologies; increases in Open Education Resources; better cost models for mobile users (ITU statistics show that in 2008 and 2009, 125 countries cut costs, some by 80 percent); and competitively priced tablets (the Aakash tablet in India, for example, costs US$60). This combination is revolutionizing education
Global demand for educational tablets will exceed ten million units in the next couple years. They will be sent to Europe, the US, Taiwan, China, Brazil, Turkey, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia and Malaysia. These markets are developing e-backpack tablet programs for students. That will push mLearning one step closer to wide-spread adoption. But we need more to realize the full potential of a connected education system.
Although we must remember that mLearning will never replace traditional education or the role of teachers, it can create a tremendous impact by making education more accessible, more efficient, more cost-effective, and more enjoyable.
Well-orchestrated cross-sector involvement is required to put affordable devices into the hands of those most in need of them. Certainly, it cannot be done overnight. It requires long-term programs and goals like China’s 12th Five-Year Plan. These goals need to combine social and commercial incentives to motivate people to acquire a better education – and the only way to close the digital divide.
Asia is an early adopter of applications running on broadband networks. The social changes broadband, especially mobile broadband, can brings are accelerating. As we connect more of the necessary with the possible, we will soon reach a point where the social changes are unstoppable.
