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Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR.
MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : THE ITM RESORT AND CONVENTION
CENTRE, SHAH ALAM
Tarikh/Date : 19/05/99
Tajuk/Title : THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 1999
INTERNATIONAL WIRELESS AND
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
SYMPOSIUM/EXHIBITION
It is a great pleasure for me to be invited here
today to officially open The 1999 International
Wireless and Telecommunications Symposium and
Exhibition. I am especially honoured that my opening
address is in conjunction with the World
Telecommunications Day.
2. I would like to extend a sincere welcome to
everyone. We are very pleased to welcome the
participants who have come from many faraway places to
attend this symposium. I am also delighted to be able
to share with the participants some thoughts about the
challenges of wireless telecommunications in the next
century.
3. Let me begin by being politically current and
correct regarding wireless telecommunications. When
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was
founded in 1865, the telegraph was the cutting edge of
technology. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell made the
first telephone call when he uttered and transmitted
the famous words to his assistant, `Mr. Watson, come
here, I want you'. The birth of wireless through the
first microwave radio link was around 1950 and
satellite communication began in 1962. The first
cellular phone made its appearance in 1983. The
Internet made its presence felt at the beginning of
this decade.
4. And today, the cutting edge of technology has
dramatically changed. One hundred and thirty four
years after the telegraph, global telecommunications
have become a complex web of intelligent networks
linked by fibre optic cables, traditional copper wires,
microwave, satellite systems, cellular mobile systems
and high-speed computers. Interestingly, the basic
mission of the ITU remains unchanged. It was founded
upon the principle that telecommunications should be
available anytime and anywhere regardless of national
boundaries. That principle is still true today.
5. I will not be so bold as to tell the
participants, who are the experts in
telecommunications, what the future holds one hundred
and thirty four years from now. I will only be brave
enough to infer what is in store for us in the early
part of the 21st century, perhaps up to around the
year 2020.
6. Between now and the year 2020, projection studies
have shown that the population of the world will have
grown from around five billion to something like nine
billion. And it is believed that the greatest test for
human society as it confronts the 21st century is how
to use the power of technology to meet the demands
created by the power of population.
7. Telecommunications in the coming century will be
digital, mobile and personal. For we are now witnessing
a technological progress forging ahead faster than ever
before in human history. It is sweeping forward in an
unpredictable fashion on a wave of powerful global
communication networks of ever-increasing performance
and capacity. The demand for faster information,
anywhere, anytime is also stimulating an unprecedented
growth in the telecommunications industry. As
societies become increasingly more information-based,
consumers everywhere hunger for more, faster and better
information. And this trend will continue. As for the
telecommunications industry, the challenge is to adapt
to these changes in demand, to provide the new form of
services that the customers want - efficiently and
effectively.
8. In the last five years, wireless voice
communications have expanded significantly. Wireless
technologies hold the promise for the future data
transfer as we are rapidly becoming an Information
Society. Wireless technologies have significant
potential to serve our information needs. This
potential for providing information services will
result in the fastest growing market today. Wireless
technologies are seen as the prime movers in the
telecommunications arena.
9. Mobile wireless technologies are an obvious medium
to provide access to the Internet. I understand that a
number of universities around the world have built
wireless networks on the campus. These networks enable
staff and students to access data from any point on the
campus. A student can even sit under a tree with a
laptop and do a research assignment on the Internet.
10. Wireless technologies and the Internet represent
the convergence of two of the fastest growing markets
and developing technologies in the telecommunications
field. This convergence of technology is certainly one
important element in the telecommunications landscape.
We can no longer distinguish and demarcate
telecommunications, computers and broadcasting.
Convergence also involves merging of the old analogue
technologies with new digital technologies. And
convergence of all these sectors is bringing along
exciting new ways of accessing, processing and
disseminating information all around the world.
11. The impact of convergence will see tremendous
growth in products such as personal video-conferencing
systems and new kinds of messaging like voice and even
video e-mail early in the next century. Convergence
will see telecommunications, computer, broadcasting and
information dissemination being interwoven to deliver
cutting-edge audio-visual and multimedia services over
a variety of forms. It will not be long before the
Internet, electronic mail, and voice are all available
over a mobile cellular phone.
12. The integration of services is the strategic
thinking of the future; whether it is a fixed
telephone, TV entertainment, access to the Internet or
a mobile phone. Customers increasingly want a breadth
of services from single service provider. Logically,
why should telephone, TV, data, the Internet and the
rest all come down differently from different service
providers when it all consists of the same fundamental
digital bits? Instead of having a satellite dish, a TV
aerial, a fixed phone line, a mobile phone and another
for the Internet, all from different service providers,
the question that begs to be answered is why not have
all these services from one single supplier ?
13. In fact telecommunications service providers are
advocating seamless global telecommunications networks
so that they can better meet the needs of their
customers around world. They have recognised that
global telecommunications networks are more productive
and profitable although they are rather competitive.
14. For a developing country like Malaysia,
telecommunications is very important. The Malaysian
Government has promoted building its telecommunications
service industry under the control of local
entrepreneurs. As the new millennium dawns, the local
telecommunications industry is expected to play a more
prominent role in helping to create an informed
society, as embodied in Vision 2020.
15. Malaysia has the prospects and the opportunity to
become a major global hub for telecommunications and
multimedia services. In fact the prospects for our
economic growth and progress are tied to our ability to
master the new telecommunications technologies and thus
dramatically improve our capacities in every field of
business, industry and life in general.
16. The Government has introduced several policy
adjustment in our effort to shape the future of our
telecommunications industry. These include further
liberalisation of the industry through the introduction
of competition in 1990. This will eventually lead to a
full-fledged competition through the Equal Access
Policy which became effective early this year. Thus
Malaysia has become one of the most liberalised and
open telecommunications services markets in this
region.
17. Malaysia has also just introduced the new
Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 which was passed
by Parliament in its July session last year. The Act
is the first legislation of its kind in the global
effort to address the issues arising from the
convergence of the telecommunications, broadcasting and
computing industries. The Act will promote and
regulate the new industry established as a result of
the convergence process.
18. Among the specific aims of policy initiatives that
have been undertaken by the Government for the
telecommunications sector is to position the country
as a competitive telecommunications service provider
and a world class market player. The challenge faced
by the local players is to ensure that they can measure
up to the foreign competitors. The challenge faced by
the regulators meanwhile is to ensure that competition
will be free without leading to a situation where the
country's overall infrastructure development will be
compromised.
19. Let me reiterate that Malaysia's
telecommunications industry will continue to exert an
enormous and dynamic influence for change in the
country. The pervasive influence of new and more
advanced technologies, as well as the realities of a
global infrastructure, makes it necessary for us to
become active participants in the world marketplace.
The telecommunications industry, I believe, will play a
proactive role in leading and transforming the
Malaysian economy into an information-based economy of
the 21st century.
20. On this note I have great pleasure in declaring
open this 1999 International Wireless and
Telecommunications Symposium and Exhibition.
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