Mobile Technology and New Zealand – Address to the Centre of Digital Enterprise Forum

Dr Buchanan-Oliver, Professor Anants-Srinavasan, ladies and gentlemen.

History of mobile technology

The pace of change constantly surprises us. When a well-known New Zealand actress and author first moved to England in the 1970s, international direct dialling had just been introduced. So she direct-dialled her father in Gisborne who, when she announced herself, replied "Don't be stupid, my daughter's in London!" and put the phone down.

That was forty years ago. The actress's father grew up in an era of copper wires, party lines and manual telephone exchanges. Her grandfather probably saw the headlines when the first international telephone cable came ashore near Cooper's Beach in 1900. Earlier generations wrote letters, and hoped that the ships carrying them arrived unscathed. Today, you can stand on a street corner and talk to practically anyone on the planet.

Mobile telephony has its origins in World War Two. Front-line infantry on both sides of the conflict were, for the first time, equipped with portable voice communications. This in turn had a profound effect on battlefield tactics, giving the men at the sharp end the ability to co-ordinate their tactics and to call on artillery, armour or air support as required. The lesson to be learned from this is that the downstream effects of technical change go far beyond technology itself.

The post-War replacement of glass valves by transistors and microchips trimmed down the wartime radio-operator's kilograms of backpack to a handful of grams. Car telephones and so-called 'briefcase' phones were available from the 1950s, working through a radio link to the landline telephone network, but they made little impact on the mass market.

The first cellular networks were established in Scandinavia in the 1980s and proliferated rapidly throughout the industrialised world. In New Zealand, cell phones remained something of a novelty until the 1990s. They were relatively costly, had little coverage outside the main centres, and resembled a small brick.

In the ensuing decade there has been an extraordinary expansion, not only of cellular phones but of other information technologies that piggy-back on the cellular networks. The phones now have the capacity to send and receive text and computer files, to take and transmit photographs, to keep track of appointments and hold personal data. You can also talk on them. For portable computers, cellular telephone systems provide a global Wide Area Network, linking at will to other computers and to the Internet.

The pace of change accelerates. Nearly seventy years from the first effective transatlantic telegraph to the portable radios of World War Two. Forty to the first cellular telephony roll-out. Ten years on to second generation digital networks. Five years later, on September twenty-seven I had the pleasure of making the first videophone call in New Zealand over a third generation network - a network that also supports off-the-shelf mobile computing.

Olaf Stapledon, a university philosopher and science fiction writer of the 1930s, imagined a world in which instantaneous electronic communication made cities redundant, as people no longer needed direct personal contact to conduct their economic and social activities. Seventy years later, technology has caught up with Stapledon's concept. While the virtual city may not ever become reality, all of its infrastructure is already in place.

Impacts of new technology

So, what was science fiction late into the last century is now the stuff of daily life. What next? What are the implications for ordinary New Zealanders? Will mobile technology be beneficial, benign or detrimental in its effects? Or a combination of all three?

These may well be some of the issues you will be discussing today.

There is no doubt that mobile technology benefits both individuals and businesses, giving them instantaneous contact with the world's population and the world's sources of knowledge. In terms of accessing and exchanging information the planet's timescale has shrunk from weeks to seconds in little more than a century.

The proliferation of information and communication technologies has incredible potential for increasing productivity. If it is used well.

Like any tool there can be negative aspects arising from the technology. The challenges these create will have to be dealt with by government, industry and users.

Internet safety will become increasingly important as fast cellular networks and ever smaller and cheaper devices give our children access to fast internet in the palm of their hand. Parents will not be able to supervise so easily what is being downloaded.

There are issues of text messages being used for bullying and of children's safety in internet chat rooms.

The convergence of cameras and telephones can create challenges for privacy. And as storage increases along with network speeds there are increasing challenges for the protection of intellectual property.

The costs of mobile technology can exacerbate the digital divide, the gulf between those who have easy access to technology and those who do not.

Technology has great potential to help people to meet their economic, social and cultural goals but we need to ensure that those opportunities are available for all.

Role of Government

The Government has taken a lead in ensuring that the economic and social benefits of mobile technology, within the wider context of ICT - information and communications technology - are maximised.

This is being achieved through legislation - for example, the 2001 Telecommunications Act - and through regulation, but behind all of that are needed comprehensive policies that inform all government processes.

Such policies have been considered in the Digital Strategy, a consultation document I released in July, in response to which the we have received over two hundred submissions.

The challenge is to establish and maintain an ICT infrastructure that will enhance this country's economic productivity and social achievements, and from which all of us will benefit. This will take more than reviewing legislation or making regulations. There has to be a comprehensive plan with goals that that link the activities of government and local government with those of decision-makers, business leaders and managers, community groups and individuals. That is the Digital Strategy's purpose.

The Digital Strategy identifies a range of challenges, from the increasing storage of printed information in digital form - to the paucity of effective ICT training for the general population - to the lack of easy access to ICT resources for community groups. It proposes a strategy for addressing each and assigns an agency to its resolution.

Even as the Digital Strategy is being finalised, its principles are being put into effect.

Access. The Government has created an Internet portal giving the public access to all government and local government sites. Nationwide initiatives include Project PROBE, which will extend broadband capacity to rural schools and communities, Senior Net and the Tertiary E-learning Framework.
Training. The Government is funding school and community ICT learning programmes, and digital opportunity pilot programmes in the Far North - in Auckland's Pacific Island communities - in Gisborne and Wairoa -in Gore - wherever the need exists.

Security. The Internet Safety Group has been established, largely with Ministry of Education funding. And I am currently drafting legislation to deal with the every growing issue of spam.

These programmes are a beginning. Our intention is that this country not only enjoys the maximum economic and social benefits from existing and emerging technologies, but that it is positioned to absorb and integrate technologies not yet thought of.

New Zealand has led the world in providing its citizens with an adaptable, flexible communications environment, though there is still work left to do.

Wherever technology may lead us - and no doubt you will know more about that by the end of the day - we should be well prepared for it.

Perhaps this group will be able to show us the way. Enjoy the day and thank you for listening.