Ministerial Alliance for Digital Nations: Speech by Minister Paul Scully

Keynote speech by Minister Scully at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) Ministerial Alliance.

"It’s such a pleasure to join you today, I’m also the government minister of London so I’m happy to welcome you to London. I am honoured to deliver the keynote speech at this meeting of the CTO Ministerial Alliance for Digital Nations.

The UK is a champion of the role of the Commonwealth in the field of information and communication technologies. We are really pleased to work closely with the CTO and to be supporting this CTO Digital Week in London. I am delighted to see Ministers and senior representatives from across the Commonwealth. I - and my colleague Lord Ahmad at the Foreign Office - hope to see you at our reception this evening.

I also welcome the presence of Doreen Bogdan Martin, as we have heard, in her second month in office, the new Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (the ITU) and a long-standing champion of the digital development agenda. We work closely with the CTO in the context of the ITU as well.

We are really pleased as well to be working closely with Ghana (as chair) and with other Commonwealth partners to help reinvigorate the Commonwealth ITU Group to promote strong Commonwealth cooperation and collaboration at the ITU.

A key strength of the Commonwealth in this field is the sheer diversity of our membership, from across continents and with differing digital development expertise and needs. So, when the Commonwealth meets we bring together the fullest spectrum of global interests and a wealth of experience and perspective.

In my remarks today, I have been asked to focus on the importance of universal broadband access for digital transformation. I will also address digital skills.

Now to deliver this agenda, it is crucial that we are joined-up, both across government and in partnership with industry and the private sector.

I am pleased to be speaking as a Minister from our new UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, formed earlier this month. It brings together a really sharp focus, and among other things, all of our ICT and telecoms policy into one place and ensures more joined-up government. That is a good start.

In addition, the partnership between governments and industry and the private sector is the bedrock for successful digital transformation and the roll-out of universal broadband. Connecting the unconnected globally is dependent on that public-private partnership.

If I may, allow me to talk about the UK experience of rolling out universal broadband. There may be commonalities here with the approaches of other Commonwealth partners. There may be other ideas that we can discuss and share further over the next couple of days.

I will draw attention to the following key elements of the UK programme:

• the importance of a public-private partnership
• the role of government to help hard-to-reach areas
• the use of new and emerging technologies to complement our work including Fixed Wireless Access, 4G and 5G
• help for those on lower incomes to get online
• the need for digital skills to exploit connectivity
• the wide range of approaches to upskilling our citizens

The UK regards fast and reliable digital infrastructure as a key driver of our economy. It drives the development of all the nations and regions of the UK - we call this our ‘levelling up’ agenda.

Digital infrastructure also needs to be secure. We have taken steps to limit and exclude high-risk vendors from our telecoms infrastructure and we are addressing the risks of relying too much on a small number of suppliers.

The UK’s 5G Diversification Strategy sets out our plans to deliver a more diverse and competitive supply base in order to increase quality and innovation, and to strengthen the security and resilience of our critical national infrastructure.

Our government is committed to delivering nationwide gigabit connectivity as soon as possible. To achieve this we have made it as attractive as possible to private providers to deploy gigabit broadband in the UK. We are removing barriers to deployment, such as recent reforms we made in the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act late last year, making it easier for operators to share infrastructure underground. We have also instructed Ofcom (our regulator) to promote competition and investment.

At the same time, we are investing significantly in what we call ‘Project Gigabit’ to boost connectivity in the parts of the country where commercial deployment is unlikely. Thus, the government is subsidising connectivity in regions that are less economically attractive to companies, because - for example - they are hard-to-reach or sparsely-populated.

This approach is working. In the UK, there is now a thriving market of over 80 private providers investing in the roll out of gigabit broadband across the British Isles.

Today, 73% of premises (that is, homes, businesses, schools etc) can access gigabit-capable networks, up from just 6% in November 2019. By 2025, the UK government is targeting a minimum of 85% gigabit-capable coverage.

Yet some consumers still risk being left behind.

Some live in really remote and rural areas, where it is hard to deliver gigabit or a strong mobile signal. As I just highlighted, we are providing a public subsidy to private providers to serve them. We are also exploring new technological solutions too. This includes exploring how we can use new Low Earth Orbit satellites to deliver fast and reliable broadband in the areas of the UK that are the very hardest to reach.

Others may be dissuaded from signing up to broadband services because of cost. So we have worked with UK providers to bring forward high-quality, low-cost broadband ‘social tariffs’ into the market for low-income families.

Take-up of these social tariffs has been slow. So we are working hard to spread the word. We are working hard with the private providers, local communities, job centres, libraries, schools, charities and consumer groups to promote broadband connectivity across all income levels of our society.

As we know, digital infrastructure is the life blood of our economies. It enables businesses to grow, and workers to find jobs. However access of communities to broadband is not, by itself, enough to drive digital development.

We also need to ensure that our citizens have the right digital skills so they can embrace our increasingly-digital world. That is why we are also focusing our efforts to upskill our UK workforce and help tackle digital exclusion.

The UK government is working to ensure that all our citizens have the digital skills they need. We are developing a wide-range of programmes to address the digital skills gap from a range of angles. Just some quick examples.

We have introduced an entitlement for adults with no or low digital skills to undertake specified key digital qualifications free-of-charge.

Our public libraries are a vital component to help people to get online. All public libraries now offer free Wi-Fi and many also give access to computers and other technology. Library staff often provide users with digital support.

Charities are also fundamental in this regard. In the UK, organisations like Futuredotnow, AbilityNet and the Good Things Foundation are doing some amazing things to help get people online, and provide them with the skills and support they need to succeed.

We recently set up a UK Digital Skills Council, which I co-chair, bringing together government, industry leaders, and training experts. Our Council members are working to identify further ways that we can increase digital upskilling, and how we can inspire future generations from all backgrounds to consider a digital career. It’s so important that we co-create the solutions in this space.

We have also launched ‘Skills Bootcamps’ in England, which offer free, flexible courses lasting up to 16 weeks. These are courses for adults on low incomes and cover, among other areas, software development, digital marketing and data analytics.

For people just entering the workforce, we have also introduced ‘digital apprenticeships’. These provide work-based training in technical occupations, including cyber security, data science, artificial intelligence, software development and communication networks.

Bringing my remarks to a close, I have set out a range of initiatives from the UK experience which seek to promote universal broadband, increase skills and close the digital divide.

Now clearly, not all will be applicable in a wider global context. We don’t underestimate some of the significant challenges facing developing countries around the world, particularly the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states.

But I hope they will provide food for thought during this CTO Digital Week. And I look forward to hearing about your examples of initiatives that we in the UK might consider adopting and promoting.

I’m sorry that I am not able to spend the whole of the day with you. A team of my officials will be here all week. I look forward to their report on your discussions. And I hope to see you again tonight at the UK reception.

Thank you all again for inviting me here today and I wish everyone a successful week."