Trinidad and Tobago鈥檚 1.3 million residents own 1.6 million cell phones, 聽yet some of the islands鈥� smaller communities have poor or no cell phone service.
It鈥檚 a problem that Cheryl Johnson, manager of communications, public relations and consumer affairs for the country鈥檚 telecommunications authority, would like to solve.
鈥淭elecommunications has grown exponentially in Trinidad and Tobago,鈥� Johnson says. 鈥淲e keep looking for ideas.鈥澛�
Johnson traveled to the University of Colorado Boulder this week to learn how to help tackle these and other telecommunications challenges faced by developing countries.聽She is participating in the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI), a public-private partnership between the U.S. government and business leaders of communication technology and broadcast industries. The three-week course is designed to help telecommunications leaders from developing countries improve telephone, television, radio and Internet services. In addition to the weeklong series of workshops and talks held at 抖阴旅行射 Boulder鈥檚聽ATLAS Institute, attendees spend a week in Washington D.C. interacting with governmental leaders and a week in California鈥檚 Silicon Valley meeting industry representatives.
The 抖阴旅行射 Boulder course is made possible by an interdisciplinary volunteer collaboration that includes ATLAS; Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship; and the聽Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program (ITP).聽
鈥淭he availability of modern communications is essential to the economic and social well-being of all people,鈥澛爏ays Dale Hatfield, lead instructor for the 抖阴旅行射 Boulder USTTI program. While developing countries sometimes consider restricting Internet access due to lost revenue from legacy telecom industries, USTTI underscores the economic and social benefit of policies that expand access to as much of the population as possible, he explains.聽
This week roughly 30 telecommunications leaders are attending one of two USTTI courses at the ATLAS Institute and ITP. 聽ITP鈥檚 class will聽introduce technologies and processes used for identifying and protecting networks from cyber attacks. The ATLAS class will cover alternative managerial and regulatory responses that can facilitate expanded access to telecommunications during times of rapid technological changes.
ATLAS has hosted the course since 2007 for聽USTTI, but the course taught at ITP is new this year.
鈥淎s a home for interdisciplinary research, teaching and policy, it鈥檚 natural that ATLAS be involved in USTTI,鈥� says Jill Dupr茅,聽associate director of ATLAS聽and a co-instructor who coordinates the USTTI class.
The courses feature guest lectures by 抖阴旅行射 Boulder professors Brad Bernthal,聽associate professor of law, 抖阴旅行射 Boulder Law School;聽David Reed ITP faculty directory; and Phil Weiser聽executive director of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship.聽In addition, nine outside experts are brought in, including Bryan Tramont, managing partner of Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, one of the nation鈥檚 leading communications law firms,聽Doug Sicker, department head of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University and June Taylor, executive director of the Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration and state personnel director. In addition,聽CableLabs, headquartered in Louisville, traditionally offers USTTI students a tour of its facilities.
More than a course
抖阴旅行射 Boulder鈥檚 involvement with USTTI began when Michael Gardner,聽U.S. ambassador to the聽World Radio Conference and now chairman of the USTTI, recommended that Hatfield organize the class in place of communications giant Verizon Communications. Hatfield, who first joined 抖阴旅行射 Boulder more than 30 years ago, is a senior fellow for the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship, and an adjunct professor for the ITP, who served with the Federal Communications Commission as both chief technologist, and chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology.聽
Since Gardner started USTTI in 1982, the nonprofit has graduated more than 9,500 communications officials from 171 developing countries, and those graduates are a boon to U.S. foreign policy, says Hatfield. 鈥淏ecause of USTTI, when our government attends international communications meetings, we have friends from all over the world,鈥� he says. 鈥淎t U.N. agencies, votes are often built upon personal relationships among delegates from different countries. When we want to promote U.S. policy, having those relationships is vital to the process.鈥�
There鈥檚 also a personal diplomacy that goes on during class, with Muslims working alongside Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and members of other faiths, he says.
Nauman Khalid said that in his native country of Pakistan, 132 million out of 180 million residents subscribe to a cell phone service, while only about half a million residents have a landline. The rapid growth of cellular users has led to new challenges and opportunities, and USTTI has been very helpful on many levels, says Khalid, director for the Pakistani government鈥檚 Telecommunication Authority鈥檚 approvals division. In particular, USTTI has recently helped his department streamline the approvals process for new technology, which keeps importers from trying to bypass the system and sell products in the 鈥済rey market.鈥�
鈥淒ale (Hatfield) is a great asset,鈥� Khalid says. 鈥淗earing him is a treat for all of us. The topics are very relevant to what we are doing. I hope to transfer this knowledge to my colleagues when I go back.鈥�