I.            Introduction

1.           The Information Revolution

 The world is presently the midst of a technological revolution which is resulting in changes in the mechanisms of economic and social development. Revolutionary advances in information technology has resulted in a new kind of economy in which information is the critical resource and the basis for competition. This has been termed the information economy. Digital media has revolutionized the information economy. More and more people now have access to the internet through personal computers, television and mobile phones as well as to a host of new communication services.

 The past decade has witnessed the rapid diffusion of information technologies to all areas of human activity that has served to accelerate change in economies and societies. Information technology facilitates the digitalization of knowledge, inputs, and processes of industries, governments, and professions which can then be processed, duplicated, stored and transmitted at ever lower costs. Information processing capabilities and reliable, inexpensive telecommunications combine to create an unprecedented kind of information infrastructure. This process itself has a snowball effect as established networks attract an ever widening base of participants, who then interconnect nationally and globally. The endpoint is a global information infrastructure that is rapidly being created.

 The Government of Anguilla (GOA) wants to ensure that its citizens benefit from these changes and new services in all aspects of their work and life. The GOA wants to ensure that every sector of the society is included in these benefits as well as safeguard the interests of its citizens and consumers. This paper sets out the GOA’s response to the present changes in the world as  well as those in the communications sector and what the Government hopes to achieve for Anguilla and its citizens.

2.          The Need for Liberalisation

 The present telecommunications legal structure for most of the world was designed at a time when telephone and telex were the main services provided by telephone companies. It was also a time of national public and private monopolies, before deregulation and the explosion of the services and technologies that are now an every day feature of modern life. Increasingly governments and their citizens feels constrained by the regulations (or lack thereof) and the telecommunications landscape that was established in these former times. The quality of service and technology implementation is very often found unsatisfactory.

 Access of a country’s citizens to the global infrastructure depends on telecommunications policy reforms. New technology can provide better, cheaper links to subscribers, while competing global operators can provide low-cost long distance connections.

 Accordingly, like many countries worldwide, the GOA is embarking on a policy of  liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in Anguilla, and the establishment of a new regime, with regulatory safeguards, to ensure the creation of a dynamic communications sector with the opening up of all the possibilities for sustainable development via a vibrant services sector. This regime of liberalisation will create new opportunities for communications service providers, new business opportunities, new jobs and the potential for the training of Anguillans in lucrative and highly skilled fields.

3.            Broadband

Broadband telecommunications services, both wireless and fixed wired, is seen as the foundation for the future development of the leading industrial countries; and myriad technologies and business models are being based on the presumption of cheap, widely accessible broadband service.  The access to broadband infrastructure that is reliable and competitively priced is as important to information based services as ports, proximity to shipping lanes and natural resources in the industrial age. The rate of development in this context is directly related to the presence and rate of introduction of broadband technologies.

 4.            Wireless Services

Experts view wireless services as playing a pivotal role in delivering information services. This is for two primary reasons. Wireless delivery can sometimes prove to be the most cost effective medium. More importantly, hand held devices such as cellular phones and hand held computers are increasingly being used to access the Internet and information services and are predicted to be the dominant means of connecting to such services within a few short years. Already in countries such as the England and the Scandinavian companies there are already more cellular phones than land lines. This trend seems to being replicated all over the world. Asia and Europe will be implementing third generation cellular systems within the next eighteen months beginning with Japan in May 2001. Third generations cellular services will initially carry at least four times the information capacity as present systems, and promise to carry at least 125 times the present capacity. Wireless services are therefore a key component of delivering the anytime anywhere Internet on which a lot of information technology and services are increasingly based. GOA therefore views the wide introduction of third Generation cellular service, wireless broadband services, two way  paging and wireless Video and Audio streaming services as essential to Anguilla’s future development.

5.         The emergence of a global information infrastructure

At a very fast pace, electronic superhighways of broadband fiber optic lines and satellite channel capacity are being deployed worldwide, creating a strong infrastructure for the global information   economy. Data networks are being built on the basis of this infrastructure to allow large, uncontrolled information flows within global organizations and to the public. Computing, telecommunications, publishing, broadcasting, and entertainment industries are converging into a new industry to create products and services made possible by this infrastructure.

 At the same time, issues of accessibility, intellectual property protection, fair competition, content regulation, and cultural preservation arise. Access to the global information infrastructure by developing countries is dependent on major telecommunications policy reforms.

 Investments and money flow globally through an increasingly integrated and volatile financial market. Information systems built on telecommunications are essential for this expanded global market.

 Investment in training to develop a skilled labor force pursued together with the elimination of barriers to entry and exit can foster the whole economy into a dynamic growth pattern.

 In the information economy, firms compete with knowledge, networking, and agility. To remain competitive in a global market, firms depend more on knowledge than on natural endowments or low labor costs. Effective communications and alliances are essential for rapid response to competition.

 It should be noted that Ireland, long considered to be European backwater has now become a dynamo of Europe by investing in education and by incorporating infotech as much as it can. It has recently become a participant in research on Internet2, a higher speed internet structure.

 Singapore has long being admired for and owes much of its success to its vast implementation of Information Technology and systems.

 Developing countries such as Anguilla must adjust or suffer exclusion from the global economy and severe disadvantage in the competitiveness of their goods and increasingly services.

II. What does this mean for Anguilla?

1.            Opportunities for extraordinary gains against old challenges

 Information technology and telecommunications in developing countries can transform old challenges and create new possibilities for sustainable economic development, just as it has in the industrial world. Information technology, when designed for the right job, can be deployed even in regions that lack adequate water, arable land or other natural resources.

 2.            Educate more people and support lifelong learning.

Education technology, for example the Internet, can help children isolated from traditional schoolhouses by distance or disabilities.

An individual who invests in education is rewarded with more employment options, higher income, and better future prospects. Education is the best method of improving the status of women. More and more in workplaces there is the need for continued education and training of workers and information technology facilitates this.  There has been much investment in the development of education programmes to be delivered through the Internet. Many universities are now providing distance learning that promises to level the playing field in terms of providing first world quality to education to citizens of developing countries. Telecommuting allows persons to work at home yet participate directly in a global economy.

3.         Make governments more efficient.

 Increased productivity in government services is possible with information systems that simultaneously increase speed, volume, quality, transparency and accountability of transactions. Well-designed information systems can become major instruments of public policy - powerful tools to implement, enforce, and evaluate policy reforms.

 Already many governments have implemented systems to streamline and computerize their operations and provide services almost in the manner as an e-business. Payment of rates, taxes, licence fees, filing and copy fees for court documents etc can be done online at the convenience of the public while government's cost for the provision of these services are significantly reduced. Moreover these systems can provide timely information pertaining to revenue collection, expenditures and costs that is invaluable to strategic planning and management.

4.         Reduce information and income inequalities.

 The relationship between access to information and level of income is strong and becoming stronger at both the national and the international level. The information revolution threatens to increase inequity, but it also provides tools to reduce poverty. 

An agenda of technology-improved access to education, health care, and information is increasingly possible for developing countries.

5.            Diversify into information-intensive industries.

Markets for information goods and services are young, growing, and exceptionally mobile. There are many opportunities and models for creating new industries in developing countries to provide information products, such as components and equipment, custom software, web hosting, or exported provision of services such as calling centers.

6.            Promote small and medium enterprises.

 Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are vital engines of job creation. They have played a key role in production and diffusion of information technology. They are quick in bringing new products to market, getting into and out of fast changing niche markets, and setting up spin-off companies. The needs of SMEs can be addressed through self-sustaining service systems and networks for training, technical cooperation, accounting, purchasing, marketing, banking, government licensing, and taxation.

7.         Create an information-friendly environment

To fully exploit the potential that is offered by the information revolution an information-friendly environment has to be created. Such an environment is characterized by coherent telecommunications reform and information policies; laws protecting investment, intellectual property, and individual privacy; open and well-regulated information and communication markets; education policies that favor a skilled labor force; and effective regulatory and standard-setting institutions. The task of creating such environment falls to not one but all of the partners for development.

8.         A national information infrastructure

A national information infrastructure consists of both the telecommunications networks and the strategic information systems necessary for widespread access to communications and information services. An information-friendly environment is a precondition for investments. While the role of the private sector is paramount while government and often international and regional organizations also play key roles as legislators, regulators, advisors, and guarantors.

9.            Strategic information systems

 Strategic information systems for developing countries include sector-wide information systems for education, health, public sector management, and transportation. Electronic payments, education and science networks, trade facilitation, disaster prevention and management, and national statistics might also be defined as strategic systems.

 New demands for education and training must be met. Demand for specialized informatics professionals, computer literacy throughout the workforce, and lifelong training are challenges for most countries in the face of rapidly changing technology and shifts in job mixes. Meeting the demand will require the efforts of schools, private companies, training institutions, computer societies, and accreditation councils.

 Sectoral information networks must be developed. Social networks based on electronic communications are needed to enable alliances that connect institutions in agriculture, education, health, banking, industry, and other sectors.

 A simple illustration of the use of a sectoral information network is the purchase of every day items from the supermarket, the drug store, the boutique, the market, even a BBQ stall with your bank debit card. Another is telebanking, where on dials a number on the telephone, dial your code, which allows for the payment of utility bills and the transfer of accounts from any touchtone phone. This can also be done over the internet. In Europe small purchases such as softdrinks can be made from dispenser machines by using cellular phones, the purchase being reflected in the telephone bill. There is at present pilot programs that allow for payment by hand computers usingthe Palm operating system. New applications are being developed every day, however all these developments rely on the installation of facilitating networks.

11.            Sectoral networks

Electronic customs clearance, transportation arrangements, and other electronic commerce capabilities have reduced import and export transaction costs substantially for many countries. In the United States commercial, educational, non-profit, and government entities. have joined CommerceNet formed in April 1994 to facilitate the use of an Internet-based infrastructure for electronic commerce to allow efficient interactions among customers, suppliers, and development partners to speed time to market and reduce the costs of doing business. Recently electronic marketplaces have been established for the automotive, aircraft and chemical industries with many more expected to follow.

12.            Telepresence, telemedicine

 New developments in fields such as telepresence: being present at any event while physically being some other place, promise to revolutionize entire industries and services. This technology allows for the developing field of telemedicine that holds the promise to enable surgeons to carry out operations remotely so that distance would be no barrier to benefitting from the best of medical science.

 Presently the emerging field of telemedicine allows for the monitoring of patients remotely. It also allows for the digitalizing of patient information which can be shared by medical professionals to deliver the best possible care to a patient. These care givers can be anywhere. This allows persons who may suffer illnesses that may be uncommon in Anguilla to be treated by experts without traveling or having these experts come to Anguilla or be resident here. The technology allows for cheap communication between doctor and patient by Voice over Internet Protocol termed “VoIP”.  Thus the health service industry can be structured in a manner that would be relatively cheap but able to access experts whenever needed at the lowest possible cost.

 A telemedicine system could be as simple as a computer hookup to a medical reference source or as advanced as robotic surgery. A comprehensive system would integrate various applications-clinical health care delivery, management of medical information, education and administrative services-with a common infrastructure.

 The technology allows physicians thousands of miles apart to form "virtual teams that diagnose and treat patients and transfer files over a secure, encrypted network."

 Doctors and hospitals alike are forging their futures with telemedicine in mind.

13.       Hotel Industry

Hotels now need to design their technology infrastructure to accommodate the needs of their guests. With upscale tourism come media tech types who demand technology that they are accustomed to in the workplaces in their homes.

Already in the US and other locations which cater to more upscale hotel guests new resorts are wired to the hilt and older resorts are undergoing renovations - not only providing high-speed Internet access in the rooms, but using technology in other ways to increase the quality of service, entertainment and conferences. The thinking is, essentially, if someone is wealthy enough to stay there, you better provide the kind of technological marvels to which he's become accustomed.

Some upscale hotels already employ "technology concierge," or “technology butlers” whose main

responsibility is to help guests with any and all tech needs.

The Ritz-Carlton chain now has high speed internet lines in all of its properties in the

United States, as well as dual phone lines and data ports, all necessities in any hotel that wants to stay competitive in the new market.

III-Anguilla, Challenges and advantages

1.         Size

 Anguilla's small size and population as well as its location and tax free status provides both challenges and competitive advantages. Its small size provides for rapid deployment of new technologies. Its small population provides the advantage of quick penetration of new technology. Its flat topography allows for the easy and cheap deployment of wireless broadband technologies. The relative affluence and sophistication of its population can be attractive in terms of providing a test bed for developing technologies.

2.         Assets

Anguilla's tax free status, stable government and the comfort provided to investors by its status as a dependent overseas British territory holds the promise for its development as a base for

e-commerce and technology industries. Already many potential investors are knocking on its doors without invitation or marketing attempts by the Government. Its resident population of Information Technology and encryption experts can provide the contacts to enable the development of Anguilla as a center for the creating and development of leading edge technologies and the wealth that such technologies inevitably produce. What is required to achieve any potential benefit is the wise development of a dynamic telecommunications industry which would provide the requisite services at competitive prices to the population at large as well as the “redundancy” in provision of certain services that investors require.

3.         Viable Areas

Anguilla sees itself as being able to offer a competitive advantage in the following areas:

 ·        Hosting of Data

·        ASPs

·        Secure storage of electronic data

·        Computer security services

·        Encryption services inclusive of hosted services

·        Data processing

·        Back office services

Telecommunications Policy Proposals

1.0

Telecommunications in the 21st Century:
The Government's vision and objectives

Creating a dynamic market

Ensuring universal access

Facilitate the development of a dynamic service economy

Consumer protection

5.2

5.3

The new organisational framework

6.1

• protecting the interests of consumers in terms of choice, price, quality of service and value for money, in particular through promoting open and competitive markets;
• maintaining high quality of content, a wide range of programming, and plurality of public expression;
• protecting the interests of citizens by maintaining accepted standards in content, balancing freedom of speech against the need to protect against potentially offensive or harmful material, and ensuring appropriate protection of fairness and privacy.

• the prevention of crime and public disorder;
• the special needs of people with disabilities and of the elderly, of those on low income and of persons living in rural areas;
• the promotion of efficiency, including efficient use of spectrum and telephone numbers, and the promotion of innovation.

6.3

6.4

7.1

7.2

7.3

7.4