 | Issue: | Latin America IV 2000 |
| Article no.: | 3 | |
| Topic: | The Impact of New Telecommunication Technologies for Latin America | |
| Author: | Dr Edmundo A. Gutiérrez-D | |
| Title: | Director | |
| Organisation: | Mexico Centre for Semiconductor Technology of Motorola | |
| PDF size: | 20KB |
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Article abstract
Telecommunications technology has evolved at an exponential pace during the last decade, allowing the development of faster micro controllers (MCU) and microprocessors (MPU). These MCU’s and MPU’s, which are the core, not only for computers, home-appliances, car controllers, etc., but for communication and networking systems, too. They are capable of performing extraordinarily complex functions at clock speeds of 1 GHz. Some three to five years back one of the most popular MPUs was running at a clock speed of 225 MHz, and contained something like five million transistors. Today, we are talking of MPUs with more than 10 million transistors performing very complex functions at speeds four times greater than their predecessors.
Full Article
MPUs and MCUs are the core for communications and networking systems, but they can also be embedded within home, office and business applications or devices. When this happens, not only the internet and communication business will be impacted, but entertainment and imaging based-solutions as well. See, for instance, the November, 2000 issue of Scientific American, where a broad and very explicit picture of the future of the digital entertainment, wireless and digital data processing and transmission, is given. Examples of this digital revolution are the digital movies that now can be produced at very low costs compared to the traditional process using 35 mm film. The music industry is also impacted by the digital revolution. Today music can be created, edited or modified using digital or electronic methods. Moreover, the digitalisation of information is leading us into the era of the Digital Library (DL). DLs are repositories of information, which contain digitalised information, such as books, magazines, scientific publications, conferences, historical archives, etc. This information is stored in computer servers that can be accessed by multiple users from anywhere in the world. The houses we live in will soon be affected in various ways by features of this technology, such as: wireless in the home: new wiring need not be put in place to accommodate new devices, this means that your investment in home automation moves when you move; nomadic networking of the home: unification of the home telecommunications and control systems with the user’s mobile system means that you can access the same facilities and controls at home, in the car or at work or wherever you may be – allowing you, for example, to control your home from anywhere and; Ad hoc networking in the home: where auto-configuration and zero administration is the goal. Grow and upgrade the home system capabilities incrementally; buy it, bring it home, plug it in and it works. The new Bluetooth wireless standard, for example, was designed to allow Shared Broadband Access, Multi-Line Telephony, Remote Access, Digital Video Distribution, Multi-Player Games, Peripheral Sharing, Data and File Sharing, Home Automation, Music Distribution, Telemedicine, Energy Management, Security Monitoring, Appliance Diagnostics and Service. Bluetooth technology promises to allow one to connect on-line, seamlessly, from wherever you might be – at home, in the office, in public places, that is, anyplace a Bluetooth transceiver is in operation. How will this digital and wireless revolution impact Latin America? How will it change society in Latin America during the next decade? These are some of the questions that I will try to give an answer to in the next section. Latin America today and tomorrow Based on current technology development and business trends, Latin America will get into the digital and wireless e-world sooner or later. However, to access and use this technology requires certain equipment and software for even a basic setup (see Figure 1). First of all, a connection to a broadband transmission system is required, then a computer to manage and administer a broad range of tasks including the data transmission. To guarantee the safety of the system, and of the information within, a security system with the appropriate software and/or hardware is also needed. A series of other appliances, such as digital cameras, video conferencing, and printing facilities, are also desirable. The required setup, the availability of service providers and transmission facilities and the cost involved, makes market penetration difficult. Although the difficulty differs in degree in each country, consumer usage throughout Latin America is socially, economically and even geographically stratified. Without massive government and private enterprise support it might very well remain so. Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile, currently, are the countries in Latin America where internet service is in great demand and growing rapidly. In these four countries the internet-user population is expected to grow to some 100 million people within the next three years. The scale of this market will, undoubtedly, encourage the growth of lower priced broadband transmission and distribution capability which, in turn, should lead to wider broadband connectivity of the local population. These broadband services would provide people not only with data transmission services, such as for the Internet, but voice and video communications, home entertainment and the like (see Figure 2). Since e-communication is evolving at a rapid pace, and since integration in the new, networked, economy depends upon efficient use of this medium (see Figure 3), it is increasingly apparent that users, that the user society as a whole will need to constantly re-adapt its systems in order to take part effectively in the world community. The internet networking facilities available in Latin America are growing rapidly and improving. Internet connectivity is now widely available in countries throughout the region. Although the bulk of the service available to the residential consumer tends to be via low speed, dial-up, connections, a variety of options are starting to reach the market. Cable modem, ASDL, ISDN, and various wireless options are available in different parts of the region. Privileged subscribers, in a few areas, can even get 200 kbps service. However, there are cultural and legal barriers that must be first overcome before e-connectivity becomes widely available and widely used. People are still more accustomed to the traditional way of doing business, of accessing or entering information. They are used to going, physically, to offices, banks, libraries, museums or archives. Many see no need to change their lives, to connect online, or to make the often considerable investment involved to do so. The traditional way of doing business suits them and, for the moment, they see little return if they change. The resistance to change can be overcome as new more enticing, easier to use services become popular, but the cost and regulatory barriers will still remain if nothing is done. The legal barriers can be overcome by regulatory initiatives: competition among service providers can be strengthened, security improved, regulatory barriers eased to permit the convergence of services, intellectual property and copyright rules clarified, and a host of other measures taken. The future of Latin America, of its peoples depends upon all the above changes taking place rapidly and efficiently. Looking about us, we see that the impact of wider access to information is not only upon the amount of knowledge and information we can accumulate, but upon the type and quality of lives we can lead. It seems obvious, and increasingly important, that people must have quick, effective access to information to survive and grow in our continually changing society. Access to e-information must be as widely spread as possible throughout the local population if it is to have a positive impact upon Latin America’s society and its economy. There is real danger of creating an ever widening gap, the so-called Digital Divide, between people who have effective access to this technology and those who do not. To cross the Digital Divide the technology must be economically accessible to all, the legal barriers to development removed, competition created and cultural prejudices conquered. Conclusion Schools, universities and R&D centres must also update their curricula in order to generate the human resource the growth of the technology requires. All these efforts may not be sufficient by themselves, but they are necessary, if a balanced, productive society is to flourish in Latin America.
