by HENRI HAXHIRAJ
Importance of digital infrastructure
The restrictions in certain areas of our everyday lives that many countries implemented due to the spread of Covid-19 once more highlighted the importance of digital infrastructure as a necessary pillar for enabling working from home for millions of employees around the world and keeping millions of companies alive. This shift of companies’ operations from offline to online wouldn’t have been possible without reliable broadband infrastructure. On the other side, the lack of digital infrastructure once more stressed the existence of the digital divide especially in rural and remote areas. This was substantiated from some of the most used sentences of 2020 – “We can’t hear you” or “Can you please repeat it, you were gone for a few seconds” – to more serious issues such as students not being able to have access to online teaching.
Observing this from a macroeconomic point a view, it shouldn´t be let out of focus, that increases in fixed and mobile broadband availability are in a positive correlation. ITU´s study “Broadband and Digital Transformation” shows that an increase of 1% in fixed broadband penetration yields an increase of 0.08% in GDP and an increase of 1% in mobile broadband penetration yields an increase of 0.15% in GDP.[1] A study of the European Commission brings similar results to light.[2] However, based on an ITU’s econometry study regarding fixed and broadband infrastructures, it is a fact that investments in mobile infrastructure are more lucrative for developing economies, while for developed economies investments in fixed broadband facilities is of greater benefit.[3]
In the past few years, we have introduced to a new range of services, such as Internet of Things, Smart Factory, Smart Farming, e-Sports, e-Health, autonomous driving etc. In some cases, innovations have become reality within only a few years. Amazon, Siemens, Whirpool etc. are using smart factories with automatized manufacturing processes, interconnected operation and production systems and a considerable reduction of physical human labor.[4]The one thing that all these innovations have in common but what too often is missing in discussions, is a robust digital infrastructure as the foundation that enables every of the above-mentioned processes and applications.
Why does digital infrastructure need to be robust? Quite simply: When we make ourselves dependent on new technology, we need to make sure that everything is working smoothly in order to prevent inconveniences or even failure. While not in e.g. a interrupted game in e-sports might be annoying, flawless transfer of data is absolutely crucial for a remote-controlled surgical operation (e-health). The same applies to autonomous driving. If we decide to use the advantages of these new applications in our everyday life, it is vital that the digital infrastructure, which is the basis for these services, is robust, reliable and secure.
Digital infrastructure in Albania
Albania has come a long way in preparing and fostering digital transformation of its economy and institutional and administrative organization. In terms of e-government, Albania is among the best in the region and can even compete with European Member States. The establishment of the e-albania.al governmental portal has brought more than 600 e-services available to citizens, businesses and government institutions and more than 1.3 million registered users.[5]
When we have a look at the mobile network infrastructure, Albania has about 1.8 million subscribers to mobile broadband services (3G & 4G) while the penetration rate of mobile broadband exceeds the 100% margin of overall households (102%) – this is due to the fact that some citizens use more than one SIM card. In terms of fixed broadband networks, an exponential growth of the penetration rate can be stated, especially in the past five years. While in 2014 only 29% of households had access to fixed broadband networks, in 2019 the rate doubled to 58% of households.[6] Even though much progress has been made, it should be mentioned that the availability of fixed broadband services in the European Union is more than 96%.[7]
As for the vast majority of the countries, the rural areas of Albania show less broadband penetration compared to urban areas. For example, rural and urban fixed line subscriber figures from AKEP from 2019 show that 50% of all fixed lines are in the region of Tirana, the average urban penetration is 25%, while the average rural penetration is about 5%. Overall, 90% of the total subscriptions of fixed connections are in urban areas, while in rural areas are only 10%. ITU identified the lack of rural connectivity as “one of the major gaps” that hampers growth in the country.[8]
The main technology used for fixed broadband connection is DSL, which makes up 39% of all used technologies. Most of the DSL connections are a combination of optic fiber and copper (FTTN/FTTC). The second most used technology is FTTH/FTTB with around 31% of all fixed broadband networks, its share has increased by 8% within only one year. With regard to the speed of fixed broadband networks, more than 50% of fixed broadband subscribers have access to bandwidths of 4-10 Mbps. A growing demand from subscribers on bandwidths from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps can be constated, however, so far this accounts for less than 1% of the overall subscriptions.[9] The relatively low demand for very high capacity networks, ergo the low willingness to pay more for higher bandwidths – especially in rural areas – is one of the factors contributing to the slower deployment of fixed broadband networks in rural and remote areas.
Perspective of digital infrastructure in Albania
The Albanian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025, which was adopted in June 2020, defined some important strategic objectives:
- Strategic Objective 1: Sustainable development of broadband infrastructure
- Strategic Objective 2: Reducing the digital divide and providing broadband services comprehensive
- Strategic Objective 3: Increasing Demand for Digital Economy Development and a Gigabit Society
and specific national objectives:
- By the end of 2025, to have Broadband penetration of 100% of households,
businesses and public institutions, of which
- 50% to have the possibility of high-speed access with at least 1 Gbps (urban areas – Tirana)
- 50% to have the possibility of access with speed at least 100 Mbps
- By the end of 2025, 100% of households in rural and remote areas to have the possibility of broadband access connection with at least 100 Mbps
- By the end of 2025, 100% of schools to be connected with high-speed broadband connection with 1 Gbps
- By the end of 2025, 100% of universities, to be connected with high-speed broadband connection with 1 Gbps Albanian Academic Network, to be part of European network of High Performance Computer (HPC)
- By the end of 2025, 100% of health centers and hospitals, to be connected with broadband high-speed of 1 Gbps
- By the end of 2025, to have a major city, the major transport corridors and strategic locations to be covered with 5G connectivity
- By the end of 2023, 50% of public spaces like parks, libraries and squares in all cities and villages to have free access to WiFi connection.[10]
These objectives are an important milestone for the development of the digital infrastructure in Albania and for enabling a Gigabit society. There is a number of issues which should be taken into consideration while doing the operative work for achieving the setted goals.
The services mentioned in the first part (Internet of Things, Smart Factory, etc.) as well as the gigabit society will be only possible by using optic fiber and FTTH/FTTB technology. Even if to date the demand for a very high capacity network is rather low, for future deployment of broadband networks FTTH/FTTB should be used to guarantee bandwidths of at least 1 Gbps in the future.
The fixed broadband penetration in rural areas should not be expected to change much without state interventions, e.g. through an aid program. E.g.,many European economies have started to grant funding for the profitability gap, thus making it more attractive to build up fixed broadband infrastructure in (rural) regions that have been considered to be not profitable. With this approach, many of the objectives will be more achievable.
The broadband infrastructure – especially mobile broadband networks – should offer not only quality, but also high security standards. This can be achieved through the development of a security catalogue with high security standards for mobile networks. With this catalogue, government agencies should be able to verify network components. Furthermore, a certification system for network components could be developed.
Furthermore, Albania signed on December 2019 a memorandum of understanding and is since then, together with 20 other countries, part of the Clean Network Initiative of the U.S. Department of State.[11] With this political decision Albania has agreed to not use any transmission, control, computing, or storage equipment from Huawei or ZTE.
The concern about Huawei access to communications systems it pointed out not only by the U.S. and also the EU, is that it potentially poses a structural risk about the level of Chinese influence over a country that allows the deployment of the Huawei 5G network. The Chinese law demands that Chinese firms work with the Chinese secret services and as such this could pose a great threat to the countries rule of law and the concerns it’s not just a political posturing.
For the Western Balkans to embrace Huawei is to keep China as a trading partner as long as there are no increase trading partners and foreign investments from the EU, which would be severely damaged if Huawei’s products were outlawed. The fear that the U.S. and some EU country have is that the Huawei may pose some fundamental security standard risk, where a non-rule of law compliant process are involved, as Chinese law requires that a Chinese must comply with the government requests, which means it could spy on people without a court order and thus infringe the fundamental rights and the rule of law.
Despite this choice, the effects of which are still yet to be evaluated, the above-mentioned security catalogue with high security standards should not be neglected as the digital infrastructure of a country has not only an impact about the way in which the country is connected, but it can also pose a great threat to that countries rule of law and national security.
When talking about 5G connectivity we shouldn`t let the importance of optic fiber out of the picture. We cannot have a robust 5G connection without optic fiber connecting the mast to the backbone. Thus, mobile broadband will more strongly depend on fixed infrastructures.
Lastly, the accession of Albania to the European Union should also be addressed. Based on the progress report of the European Commission, Albania is only moderately prepared in the field of information society.[12] An essential part is the adoption of the new European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). To increase the broadband penetration will not be enough for being very good prepared. At least equally important will be to adopt the requirements of the EECC in time – for example a broadband mapping system, enabling more synergies in fixed broadband rollout as well as security standards for mobile broadband networks – should also be a priority.
[1] Impact of broadband on the economy (2012): https://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/broadband/ITU-BB-Reports_Impact-of-Broadband-on-the-Economy.pdf
[2] The socio-economic impact of bandwidth (2010): https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/study-socio-economic-impact-bandwidth-smart-20100033
[3] The economic contribution of broadband, digitization and ICT regulation: Econometric modelling for the ITU Europe region (2020): https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/pref/D-PREF-EF.BDT_EUR-2020-PDF-E.pdf
[4] Five smart factories – and what you can learn from them: https://internetofbusiness.com/success-stories-five-companies-smart-factories-can-learn/
[5] National Plan for Sustainable Development of Digital Infrastructure, Broadband 2020 – 2025 (2020): https://www.infrastruktura.gov.al/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/National-Plan-BBand-EN.pdf
[6] Autoriteti i Komunikimeve Elektronike dhe Postare – Raporti vjetor 2019 (2019): https://www.akep.al/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RAPORT-VJETOR-AKEP-2019-PER-KUVEND.pdf
[7] Study on Broadband Coverage in Europe 2018 (2019): https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/study-broadband-coverage-europe-2018
[8] Ebd. p.16.
[9] Ebd. p. 18-19.
[10] National Plan for Sustainable Development of Digital Infrastructure, Broadband 2020 – 2025 (2020): https://www.infrastruktura.gov.al/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/National-Plan-BBand-EN.pdf
[11] The Clean Network Safeguards America’s Assets: https://www.state.gov/the-clean-network-safeguards-americas-assets/
[12] Commission Staff Working Document – Albania 2019 Report: https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/20190529-albania-report.pdf
