Imagenes Latinas/ 806 3rd World Communications/ Tape number: UC30-1526; Images/Imagenes

Not the one at least one of the few most successful international ventures ever undertaken. We have as Ambassador Ryan Hart said one hundred and four members of our organization each participating on an ownership basis and operating a very successful system which provides satellite communications at ever decreasing cost to its members. As a private company I think Comsat is misunderstood even in the United States and certainly I could not expect those from overseas to be very familiar with how. This strange entity created by Congress and yet being a private company operates. I was struck a month or so ago when I was sitting with a very US government official. And he responded to the fact that we had had some advertising on television recently. And he said why would a government agency buy advertising time on television. And I had to explain to him that we were not a government agency. Last night at dinner some of the questions that I got with respect to Comsat Intelsat

would indicate that some people in other countries are still trying to find out just what this organism organism does. Well we work very closely with the State Department as we have gone around to establish. Working relations in various countries. This has been a very successful endeavor in that we now have as I said 100 in four countries who work with us to bring the benefits of satellite communications to the world. Do the government representatives and the Comsat representatives have the same function as we go to contact these people in other lands. Well obviously the answer is No. We believe that the proper role for our State Department is to create a climate in which we can work. They have the contacts through governmental channels. We establish the contacts through the telecommunications entities and together we find a way to bridge the gaps of misunderstanding and arrive at working agreements. We believe that the proper role of Comsat in this arrangement as we believe it is for any

private institution is to design the system to operate the system to continuously innovate within the limits of the technology and to make sure that the services are expanded and as many ways as possible and as many ways as make economic sense. At the same time we believe that the advantages should be made available. To those who do not have an well developed communications infrastructure and therefore the rates that are quoted through Intel's. Public Responsibility. Why don't they do something for the shareholders. I would like to be able to get these two groups to read each other's mail. Well the age of satellite communications now spends almost two decades. The Sixties. Those of you who are old enough to remember will recognize that is the decade of Great Expectations. We were all

sure that with our knowledge of technology with our knowledge of how the economy should be organized almost anything was possible. I was a war on poverty and everyone would eat well all the rest of these things could be brought about. We thought we had all the answers and we could fine tune the economy to avoid recessions unemployment inflation and all the rest. And then in the 70s we saw how naive we had been in the 60s. In fact it was unbelievable the turn around where originally we had these great expectations of fulfilling everyone's ideas of progress and yet in the 70s people got very despondent. Not too much can be done we must damp down these expectations which people have of an ever expanding economy. We saw tensions wars higher inflation and calls for a new economic order. One out of the 70 is behind us and we are in the 80s. We certainly should be very mature about how all these factors

interact. And yet I wonder whether we're there or not. As we look at ever increasing oil prices as we look at the heavy debt that be sets many third world countries and higher on inflation more unemployment in the West and the lack of trust that seems to permeate most of society. We wonder where are the answers. And I ask myself frequently how can this be happening in this age of ever expanding communications. Everyone knows that communications is a good thing and everyone knows that satellite technology is a good thing because it makes communications more readily possible among people all over the world. If that is true then why is it not bringing about more peace and tranquility in the world. I wonder if we must accept that communications is not only a solution but it is part of the problem as we find out more it doesn't necessarily mean that we have more understanding.

It does. An order as well as an economic order. Well I'm still an optimist in the midst of all these problems that I mention and I'm not ready to throw in the sponge. I believe the West's policy of open communications is the proper policy. And yet it is in conflict with the philosophy of many parts of the world. Somehow we have to learn to live together. The big problem in my mind is to decide when we should accommodate. To other peoples desires and when we should hold firm because the essence of what we're talking about is too important to us to give up. Making those judgments is one of the most difficult things we have to deal with. I wonder if our viewpoints are irreconcilable forever. I believe the answer is No. And yet I don't think any of us can point to the obvious reasons why it must be yes.

So we must approach these dilemmas that we face with goodwill. Better Tomorrow you can decide that there is a certain frequency spectrum which is useful for communications today and tomorrow you can open up a new piece of the frequency spectrum and get more capacity. Time after time in the last 50 years we have told ourselves that we had saturated the communications spectrum and capabilities of our country in the world only to be shown that we were wrong. When someone opened up a new domain. This is a very good time to be in communications because things are changing so rapidly. Every time that we've said we had fully loaded capacity. Someone has come along and invented a new way. To expand that capacity in the satellite field for example we were told that there were only a certain number of slots up in the sky where

you could put a communications satellite. Yet shortly thereafter we found ways to put them closer together. By making a better antennas. After that we went to a still higher frequencies so that we could put two satellites in the same place one on one frame say one on another. Then we came up with spot beams so that you could direct the energy from a given locus location and space in one direction and put another spot beam. Operating in another direction. So we've multiplied our capacity 100 times and 100 times over. And I don't think we're at the end of that yet. Lasers and optical fibers give us a whole new dimension of communications technology which when coupled with satellites well open an almost infinite new possibility to us in the United States we've grown to. But words which give us great knowledge of the weather have

farming conditions. Many activities mining and so on. Where greater knowledge is necessary for these natural resources to be exploited. The US policy again is an Open Skies policy. We believe that satellite should be allowed to fly anywhere. We go ahead and fly them and we take the data and make it available. To anyone who wants to buy it on a worldwide basis. And yet I'm not sure that we will ever reach agreement among all parties that that is the right way to go. Many countries feel that the country which is being overflown should have a right to control information which might be key to its own development. We must find a way to resolve this and I think that much more dialogue is needed on this Subject because it is a very thorny issue. Which will not be settled overnight. And which an arbitrary position on the part of any one country is not constructive. I don't believe that we in the United States have the final answer to that question.

Well as I look at it most of the impediments to exploring the technology properly are political. Such as in the case I just cited. There is a great need for our government and private sector interests to find creative ways to exploit the. Money its many forms the sharing of ideas and emotions. The very web of society only through an open communications system can we begin to hope for a stable world order. The alternative is National tribalism economic Protech Sion ism and social isolation. Each of which feeds on ignorance of our common needs and the prospects for our meeting them.

How can we build a universal communications structure. We face the hope for a future of promise as well as some stubborn problems of current reality. The promise is that for the first time in human history. We have the active prospect of building a world information system. One which will provide a full range of information resources and communications channels to every part of the earth eventually reaching everyone. If we put our minds hearts and energies and resources to the task we can do this before the end of the century. The opportunity has been given us by these spectacular advances in communications and information technology is during the past generation as a technician.

I found these advances awesome if not intimidating at times. Only recently I was able to add a new. But the telephone grid looks to be the one basic element in world communications development. The significant new factor these days is the stepped up pace of telecommunications expansion. In the third world. It was only a few years ago. That over half the world's telephones could be found in North America. That ratio is changing fast. A recent survey has indicated that the growth rate for telecommunications expansion here has leveled off at about 6 percent per year.

However in the Middle East it is growing currently at a 12 percent annual rate in Asia at 6 percent. And at almost 10 percent. Other third world regions such developments set the agenda for this conference a new chapter in where all communication is unfolding. It will not be good enough simply to act. Rather as your conference title suggests we must anticipate these changes. Simply to act. Rather as your conference title suggests that we must anticipate these changes. The reality of course

is that we are still far from the goal of adequate communications. The pace has speeded up in recent years but it is still an even. This is true even in the United States. Although we have almost universal telephone telephone service and other extensive networks. There are still pockets of inadequate service and of course this is a chronic problem in most developing nations of Asia Africa the Arab world and Latin America. The measure of how far we have to go can be summarized in a few statistics that in black Africa for instance there are fewer than five telephones for every 100 persons are at the level of computer power. In the third world countries with over three quarters of the world's

population. Is less than 10 percent of the total. Clearly a major part of your agenda agenda involves addressing the reality of these conditions and the need to alleviate them. There is of course no single all encompassing formula for doing that. Further during the third and fourth years of the grant. It is hoped that what is learned from the model created here can be adapted to meet the varying needs of developing nations. Telecommunications is still an elite function in most of these countries. The measure of our success in the coming years will be our ability to marshal adequate communications and information resources for

the isolated majority in Asia Africa the Middle East and Latin and North America. And the US. Well our severed societies together. We in this society have come to recognize. Developing countries among them and between the developing and the developed world. There are still obstacles to be overcome. Most countries do not have a clear idea of their needs. It's hoped the new UNESCO's program can help in setting out realistic plans for strengthening their capabilities. Financing as always is another stubborn problem. Assistance from governments and international lending institutions has its

place but most of the tens of billions of dollars needed to begin to complete a genuinely global communications system will have to come from other sources. This calls for a hard look at the economics of communications and information resources by the governments concerned. Working with industry and with financial institutions both the local and the international levels. Another continuing. Determined American policies and actions in the wider field of world communications similar debates are taking place in other countries. How do we fit the diverse overlapping. Often contradictory

national approaches into a world system. It will not be easy but I hope for precedents that can encourage us. One of these is the long history of cooperation in the International Telecommunications Union. The old United Nations agency which has coordinated global technical requirements another hopeful president is the spectacular success in developing an international communications satellite network. Intel said. The system is on one hundred and four countries which generate 95 percent of all communications. Intelsat circuits are currently responsible for over 60

percent of all international communications traffic. A third president is regional cooperation and communications. In our own hemisphere. We have to tell us Communications Group. Elsewhere there is panic to tell in Africa. Cept in Europe. The ICN Communications Group in Asia and the Arab telecommunications organization which is planning its own regional satellite system. These are important indicators of our ability to meet global challenges in the communications and information fields. But there are other trends pointing towards a restrictive approach to these needs in ways that would limit the

prospects for an open world Information System censorship and other forms of repression are not new in the communications field. Until now. They have operated largely at our national level. Usually because ruling elites believe open communication channels are a threat to their power. The new attempt to limit communications development and information flow is different. It stems in most cases from the best of intentions. It has taken the form of proposing international standards which would paradoxically put restrictions on information flow. In the interests of bringing about a better balance

in this. Logic was a free loan that should push us in a positive direction. They each have their place. Our goal should be the prospect of human for Feldman of allowing everyone. In the phrase of Ralph Waldo Emerson to yield that peculiar fruit. Each man was created to bear. Your conference will help.