I am delighted to have been asked to speak today, and to be here in Guernsey for this Channel Island event.
The governments of Jersey and Guernsey are committed to working together for the benefit of both of our islands, so it’s a pleasure to see Ministers and officers from both Jersey and Guernsey here at this 5G Summit.
Today marks a great opportunity for us to consider the future of the telecoms sector in both of our jurisdictions – a sector that is at the forefront of innovation for both our islands.
Jersey is already a truly connected gigabit society. We are fortunate to have three excellent 4G mobile networks, a fibre network that reaches every connected home and business, and some of the highest broadband speeds anywhere in the world.
We already have the fibre and mobile connectivity that most other countries are aiming for - but it is essential that we ensure that our networks continue to evolve to keep Jersey at the forefront of a connected and increasingly competitive world. And that is why I’m delighted that we are here today planning and preparing for 5G together which I believe is the next stage in that evolution.
So given the excellent position we are in today why is it important that we continue to evolve?
Digital infrastructure is a crucial enabler for the economy, and something I’m keen to focus on in my role as Economic Development Minister.
In October, Jersey’s Council of Ministers unveiled our Common Strategic Policy.
This sets out our priorities for this term of office, which will feed into the plans, strategies, and policies that we create over the next four years.
At its core, we set out five main priorities:
Our telecoms sector will play an important part in helping us to deliver on these ambitions:
Gigabit connectivity will become the international standard that all jurisdictions aspire to:
- Compete internationally, businesses will need to have access to anywhere, anytime connectivity. And in the next few years, that will include 5G
- Harnessing new technology will allow us to develop new initiatives and systems to improve the wellbeing of islands and to increase productivity - for example through the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. These technologies require an advanced telecoms network
- And, to remain a great environment to develop, test and launch innovative new products, we need to continue to evolve our legislative and our physical infrastructure
By continuing to invest in our digital infrastructure, we will be able to help create a sustainable and vibrant economy for our island.
Productivity
Personally, my key priority is the need to raise productivity. Increasing the amount that the island can produce per person – by working smarter, not longer – must be the way we can achieve economic growth, improve competitiveness, and raise the standard of living. And telecoms has one of the highest levels of productivity of any sector in our economy.
Increasing productivity was one of the targets that Jersey’s government set as part of the Future Jersey initiative in 2016. We worked with our community to develop a long-term vision for Jersey’s future, and created a number of indicators to track our progress towards our targets.
While we have made good progress towards meeting some of our goals – like reducing unemployment – our productivity has not been improving.
To turn this trend around, I am proposing that we look towards digital.
Digital is an important driver of productivity, and making sure that we accelerate the adoption of new digital technologies, like artificial intelligence, could help us to get our productivity back on track.
5G technology could have an important role to play in this, too.
In the UK, a report by O2 found that 5G infrastructure could generate total productivity savings of £6 billion a year for British cities.
I hope that 5G, along with our existing fibre network, will create similar benefits for our island productivity.
For Jersey, enhanced mobile broadband could unlock greater productivity through enabling us to work from anywhere at any time. We increasingly live in a 24 hour connected society where our customers and clients are just as likely to be in China or India as London or Paris. The development of 5G will add to that level of connectivity.
The ability to work seamlessly from any location in the island could attract new business to Jersey, as well as providing benefits for existing businesses whose staff will be better able to work on the move.
5G technology will also have advantages for consumers, such as the ability to view high-quality video content and engage in other immersive digital experiences on the move. This could also open up new opportunities for island businesses.
To reap the benefits of these technologies, we need to make sure we have the right physical digital infrastructure, as well as the appropriate laws and regulations to allow us to adopt them.
Future
Although digital assets may seem less tangible, our digital infrastructure provides a strong foundation for Jersey’s future. It enables us to be among the first to adopt new technologies that can expand our economy.
I’m pleased to see our young ‘digital ambassadors’ here today. By ensuring that our islands have a sound digital infrastructure, we’re investing in their futures and we are making sure that Jersey can remain at the cutting edge of technology and use it to our advantage. Events like today can help us work together as governments, telecoms providers, regulator and industry to develop the right digital infrastructure.
Jersey is rightly proud of its telecoms sector.
Living on an island can sometimes make us feel physically disconnected from the rest of the world – but while we may be geographically disconnected, our digital connectivity is excellent.
We already have gigabit-capable fibre connections to every home and business with broadband.
We have the fastest broadband download speeds in the world.
We have resilient off-island connectivity.
And we have three 4G networks that cover virtually every part of the island, with speeds that many other places would be envious of. But that doesn’t mean that we can become complacent.
We need to build on this strong foundation to make sure that it remains fit for purpose, and make sure that we can adopt new technologies.
This brings me to the telecoms strategy that we published in January of this year. Maintaining and building on Jersey’s excellent existing digital infrastructure was one of the strategy’s central principles.
It makes a number of recommendations, including encouraging the development in next-generation technologies, adopting policies to incentivise mobile network sharing, and ensuring that all islanders can benefit from improved connectivity – for example, by being able to access more government services online.
This strategy will ensure we have everything in place to encourage our network providers to adopt 5G technology and to support its rollout across the island.
Advanced digital infrastructure will help to drive Jersey’s digital sector, as well as enabling the digitisation of existing sectors - allowing sectors like financial, professional and business services to remain highly competitive.
This will increase productivity right across the economy and improve diversification of Jersey’s economy into new, high-tech sectors.
The telecoms strategy also exemplifies the States of Jersey’s new One Gov approach, which encourages departments across the States to work together. Through One Gov, we view the States of Jersey as a collective body - rather than as a group of different departments working independently.
Working together
The strategy is a real example of us putting this into practice. Teams from across the organisation – both in my, and other departments – worked together to plan and develop the strategy. And officers from all over the States of Jersey are responsible for making sure the strategy is implemented.
The delivery of the strategy will also require all stakeholders to work together – like we are at today’s event.
As I mentioned earlier, we now have fibre connectivity for every home in Jersey, with speeds of up to 1GB.
But there is still work to be done.
We are now working to ensure other key goals of our telecoms strategy such as:
- A competitive retail market, where consumers have power to find a deal that suits them
- A digitally inclusive society, where anyone who wants to access the internet, can do so
- A successful Testbed programme, which will bring more companies to trial products in Jersey
- And, of course, the focus of today’s event – we will work to ensure the fast adoption of 5G
As I said at the beginning, Jersey is already a truly gigabit society. Our digital infrastructure is currently in advance of the UK and much of the rest of the world and I want to see the Channel Islands stay at the forefront of technology.
There’s no doubt that the focus of today’s event – 5G connectivity – will be important to our islands, to enable us to continue benefitting, economically and socially, from the fourth industrial revolution.
I look forward to seeing how we all can work together on this, and for the future of our telecoms sectors and as Gavin said earlier for a better tomorrow.
Thank you for listening, and I wish you all a productive and enjoyable day.
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