Pacific St |: Economy |: East Asia
Mongolia continues its digitization drive by deploying Starlink to provide satellite internet service to “people in remote areas… in every corner of our vast country”.
On July 6, Mongolia’s Communications Regulatory Commission approved two licenses for Starlink, one of SpaceX’s projects, to operate in the country. Starlink, which currently operates in 56 countries, is now able to provide low-orbit satellite internet in Mongolia. A recent agreement between the Mongolian government and SpaceX will help diversify investment and internet service providers for millions of users across Mongolia.
The collaboration between SpaceX and the Mongolian government shows Ulaanbaatar’s efforts to keep pace with the massive development of digital transformation and information technology. Mongolia has made great leaps in its efforts to become a digital nation. The country’s long-term development plan, Vision 2050, created a roadmap for Mongolia to use modern digital tools and technologies despite its landlocked geography.
In another aspect of Mongolia’s drive to become a digital country, the government launched E-Mongolia in 2021. The e-government service platform has learned and adopted best practices from countries such as Estonia and Singapore.
At the same time, Mongolia is rapidly opening up Internet access, leading to a large increase in its online population. According to the World Bank, 84 percent of Mongolians used the Internet in 2021, up from just 12 percent in 2011. even as of 2018, more than half of Mongolians had access to the Internet.
Now, the SpaceX-Mongolia agreement has the potential to add to the country’s overall digital transformation efforts.
According to Uchral Nyam-Osor, Minister of Digital Development and Communications, “the fiber optic cable network already covers a wide range of high-speed internet in Mongolia. This [Starlink] Technology will provide more opportunities for people in remote areas such as pastoralists, farmers, entrepreneurs and miners who live and work in every corner of our vast country.”
In June, during a one-on-one virtual meeting with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Prime Minister Oyun-Erden Luvsannamsray expressed Mongolia’s interest in cooperation, and not just Starlink. Musk is also the CEO of Tesla, and Oyun-Erden has expressed interest in importing electric vehicles to Mongolia and allowing Tesla to use the country’s rare earth minerals, a key ingredient in EV batteries. Oyun-Erden also asked Musk about “initiating a scholarship program to train the best IT engineers in Mongolia.”
Moreover, on July 3, Masanori Condon, Secretary General of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Organization. visited Mongolia and discuss the strategic plan of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunications Organization for 2023-2026.
That said, there is more to do. The agreement with SpaceX will require updating Mongolia’s existing communications laws and regulations. In the near future, the government should create a legal environment that supports Mongolia’s new digital efforts by creating modern regulations for internet use, information security, privacy and data security.
Mongolia’s agreement with SpaceX also opens up an opportunity for Mongolia to build its own low-orbit satellite system so that its Internet services are not entirely dependent on satellites from other countries.
With all its efforts, Mongolia is determined to become a digital country that uses the modern tools and technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, the age of information technology.
[ad_2]