Public-private partnerships will be a key component of meeting ICT-based sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations, Ericsson CTO Ulf Ewaldsson told RCR Wireless News in an exclusive interview.
Ericsson, in conjunction with Columbia University’s Earth Institute, conducted joint research highlighting the importance of ICT in achieving U.N. goals by the target 2030 date. The 17 U.N. goals are broad ranging and include addressing poverty, gender equality, changes to the production/consumption of goods and sustainable urban development.
In terms of how ICT can accelerate progress toward those goals, Ericsson is focusing on high-quality ICT systems including broadband connectivity of all public facilities by 2020; ICT training of all relevant public officials and service providers; ICT-based delivery systems for health care, education and infrastructure; deployment of the “Internet of Things” for public infrastructure and environmental management; and encouragement of universities to scale-up education and incubation relating to ICT solutions.
“We have only 15 years to reach [the goals],” Ewaldsson said. “There’s an emphasis on how this will work in a market economy and how it will work with the government pressure these goals put up. It will definitely need a very close partnership between the private sector and the public sector to make this work. We’re always advocating that we’re reaching what we call the networked society. The networked society is defined by what will benefit from a connection in the future will have one.
“All of these goals can be made possible using digitalization, mobility,” Ewaldsson continued. “By using this, you’re able to reach these goals faster. States should now go back and be looking at where they need to be in 2030, then backtrack and see if they can backtrack enough to see what kind of infrastructure and platform they’d have to invest in to get there. One piece is digital transformation. The public sector needs to invest in order to do a digital transformation comparable to what’s going on in the private sector.”
Ewaldsson said the U.N. sessions are “inspiring,” but mentioned the challenges faced by regulatory concurrency, adding that operators, with their attendant radio licenses, are “an excellent vehicle” to build out infrastructure.
“Where I get worried is when, for instance, in the licensing schemes that are made, there are not enough requirements on build outs,” Ewaldsson explained. “I think it’s very important for us that society puts demands on people that have the licenses to operate networks to do build outs.”
Looking ahead to 2030 and having realized the U.N. goals, Ewaldsson stressed “economics will decide what will be really effective. I think the major thing you’ll find is the physical consumption of goods the way it’s done today will change. That’s why I think digitalization and the kind of technologies we work within Ericsson is going to be a major backbone to reach a lot of these goals.”
