Last week we lined our first five top technology and telecom policy trending topics in 2024, in a context the place public coverage is taking over a brand new dimension.

We addressed Artificial Intelligence; the brand new European institutional cycle: single market, the problem of competitiveness and strategic autonomy; financing gigabit and 5G connectivity; a accountable spectrum coverage to succeed in regional targets; consolidation, and the relevance of in-market first within the telecom sector.

Dive into the second set of 5 developments that may form the tech and telecoms coverage panorama in 2024!

Innovation and future-proof connectivity networks

Technology cycles are getting shorter and selling innovation to make areas extra aggressive is without doubt one of the principal coverage priorities, together with larger flexibility for cross-sectoral cooperation in areas reminiscent of smart factories.

2024 shall be marked by the gradual phasing out of copper networks as we enter a brand new period of the next-generations networks. Based on fibre and 5G technologies, subsequent era networks provide decrease latency, increased speeds, the flexibility to ship increased high quality companies and lowered environmental impact. This will enable to speed up the event of the digital companies of the longer term, reminiscent of enhanced IoT solutions or the metaverse. Additionally, simply within the early phases of 5G, an enormous leap ahead, 6G, is already on the horizon.

During the 2023 FTTH Conference 2023, stakeholders agreed the necessity to rework networks to maintain tempo with the a brand new period of digital innovation, triggered by applied sciences such AI, 5G, IoT. Telecoms operator will continue innovating their networks, to anticipate and meet evolving digital calls for. If MWC23 kicked off asserting the sector imaginative and prescient, Open Gateway, which goals to remodel the networks into programable networks, in 2024 the business will proceed to advance this challenge to show networks into open innovation platforms for the digital companies of the longer term.

The relevance of digital infrastructure and applied sciences within the combat towards local weather change

The twin transition, digital and inexperienced, turns into a worldwide industrial technique and 2024 will proceed to emphasise the significance of a digitally enabled green transition. Concrete methods such because the European Green Deal in Europe will serve as a reference for other regions.

Given the consensus on the benefit of digitization for sustainable development, debates will concentrate on the significance of together with connectivity and digital applied sciences within the European taxonomy, whereas selling regulatory, fiscal and monetary frameworks to speed up the digital and green transition. In addition,  Telecom operators will continue to generate environmental benefits by selling power effectivity, a round economic system and sustainability alongside the worth chain and efforts to develop inexperienced power sources (together with nuclear) shall be consolidated.

Finally, progress shall be made in elevating consciousness that telecoms operators play in saving lives and mitigating disasters and local weather change harm, with initiatives reminiscent of early warning systems set to be rolled out within the coming years.

Cybersecurity and belief constructing

Cybersecurity is without doubt one of the public insurance policies priorities as the chance of cyberattacks and knowledge breaches develop. Many elements will affect the cybersecurity landscape, leading to a larger involvement of high administration in cybersecurity: cyber threats will proceed to develop and grow to be more and more refined, together with via using new applied sciences reminiscent of AI; bettering the safety of crucial infrastructure and important companies and enhancing the protection of the supply chain will grow to be key coverage goals; cybersecurity regulation will proceed to play an intense function, with a number of laws underway in Europe and Latin America; cyber insurance coverage which is changing into the fastest-growing sector of the worldwide insurance coverage market will affect the longer term cybersecurity panorama, and cyber rating agencies might proliferate in an unregulated area. Finally, there shall be an elevated concentrate on capability constructing, to unlock funding, shut the cybersecurity abilities hole and strengthen the cybersecurity tradition.

Building belief, protecting digital rights and knowledge privateness, and enabling international data flows is changing into more and more elementary in our society. Data safety regulatory frameworks shall be revisited, just like the European GDPR, ePrivacy and knowledge retention guidelines or cloud certification schemes. The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) got here into pressure in 2023, regulating the digital sector for a fairer, extra contestable and safer digital area. 2024 would be the yr of enforcement and when client safety, on-line security and the combat towards misinformation shall be on the forefront of individuals’s and policymakers’ minds.

Bridging the digital divide and pursuing inclusive transformation

Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues that in an more and more fragmented and polarised world, and with hundreds of thousands of individuals on social networks, two considerably antagonistic long-term developments are at play: the need for extra freedom and the need for extra equality.

Improved connectivity (protection and use) and the event and adoption of recent applied sciences open new alternatives for the social and financial growth of the inhabitants and areas. Multiple alternatives are opening up for the discount of the digital gap in Latin America, a area that’s worryingly consolidating its place because the second most unequal area on this planet.

In this context, the telecommunications sector is a key ally. The collective goal mustn’t solely be to enhance protection to attach the unconnected (already at 95% protection worldwide) and stimulate innovation, but in addition to encourage utilization (40% of the inhabitants lined by these infrastructures continues to be not linked) and in addition technological adoption by businesses (particularly SMEs) and public administrations. At the identical time, a reliable surroundings, and common design for accessibility must be a part of an general digital inclusion strategy, which goals to scale back the digital gap. 

Cooperation, key to deal with frequent world challenges in a extra fragmented world

2024 kicks off integrating new international locations into the BRIC+ bloc, the political and financial arm of rising economies, instead (globalization) to the G7. This is a landmark in direction of a brand new world order that stresses the relevance of multi-stakeholder cooperation.

In this context, B20 India 2023, the G20 enterprise discussion board, centered the coverage debate on methods to lift the bar for shared world prosperity, setting the trail for G20/B20 Brazil in 2024.

Meanwhile, 2023 COP28 in Dubai, the UN Climate Change Conference, sought frequent world formulation to fight local weather change. This included the ITUs Green Digital Action Plan which emphasises the relevance of recognising the digital networks and applied sciences as enablers of the greening of the economic system and society at massive. Cooperation to combat local weather change was additionally the goal of the First Ministerial Summit on Environmental Sustainability, framed throughout the OECD Regional Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean, paving the way in which for the approaching years. These debates will proceed in 2024.

In addition, digital connectivity and applied sciences, as enablers of financial and social digital inclusion, led to the 2023 First Meeting for Digital Inclusion in Latin America, to name for motion, whereas the relevance of alliances to shut divides was highlighted on the MWC23. Regarding the Internet Governance, key to world coherence and truthful practices on digital points, will proceed to set off discussions, and new formulation to maneuver ahead, just like the Global Digital Compact led by the United Nations and anticipated in September 2024.

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