Technology, Partnerships And Preparedness Key To ASEAN's Digital Resilience - Experts

By Soon Li Wei

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 (Bernama) -- Malaysia and other ASEAN member countries need to combine technology with stronger partnerships, disaster preparedness and coordinated policies to ensure telecommunications networks remain operational and communities stay connected during crises, according to resilience experts.

Kacific Broadband Satellites Group and K Tower managing director Hussein Abdulkader said network resilience could not depend on any single technology, but required an integrated ecosystem involving governments, regulators, mobile operators, satellite providers and humanitarian agencies.

"You can't say there's a particular piece of technology that will make us resilient, but with people, partnerships, policy, governance, funding, that ecosystem is what gives us resilience," he said during a panel session titled ‘Networks for Resilient Digital Nations: Preparedness, Continuity and Innovation in ASEAN’ held in conjunction with M360 ASEAN 2026 here today. 

Abdulkader said integrating terrestrial and satellite networks was vital to delivering seamless failover when physical infrastructure, such as fibre or microwave links, was severed during disasters.

Citing disaster relief operations in Papua New Guinea, where portable solar-powered satellite units supported first responders following a landslide, he stressed that having technology on hand was futile without pre-established rapid deployment protocols.

Echoing this view, British High Commission in Islamabad’s first secretary and humanitarian and resilience adviser Heidi Carrubba said disaster readiness had to be embedded long before calamity struck.

"The most effective investments are not necessarily sophisticated technologies... but it's also about building a system that is designed, governed and tested before the crisis," she said.

Carrubba noted that digital resilience must ultimately be felt by citizens, particularly in reaching remote communities with actionable safety alerts rather than mere warning sirens.

"Your phone can actually be a life-saving device in your pocket.

“Mobile-enabled early warnings, combined with hazard analytics and anticipatory action, could help governments shift from reacting after disasters towards preparing communities before they occur,” she said, adding that while ASEAN already possessed an emergency preparedness framework, closer cross-border collaboration was needed to ensure every citizen received trusted, real-time alerts.

Meanwhile, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director-general Lt Gen Dr S.P. Kochhar said major natural disasters should be treated as national emergencies, urging authorities to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite data to anticipate disaster zones and deploy resources swiftly.

Noting that disaster resilience was a cross-sector and cross-border responsibility requiring predefined SOPs, command structures, and asset registries, Kochhar stressed that such investments should not be judged strictly on commercial ROI, as preserving emergency communications protected national infrastructure and lives.

“For disasters, we should not look at investments or ROIs. We are protecting a part of the nation, the infrastructure and the population. Investments have to be made, government funding mechanisms could support infrastructure in areas where commercial returns alone may not justify investment,” he said.

Huawei Asia Pacific wireless industry development director Alex Lai pointed out that auxiliary power was often the weakest link in network continuity, as base transceiver stations frequently shut down once backup batteries ran out, even if equipment remained undamaged.

Lai advised operators to deploy autonomous on-site backup power and prepare alternative wireless backhaul routes, as restoring severed underground or overhead fibre lines could take significant time during major floods.

M360 ASEAN 2026, organised by the GSMA on Sept 9 and 10, brings together ministers, regulators and industry leaders to discuss digital trust, artificial intelligence, resilient infrastructure and regional digital integration.

The event, held for the first time in the ASEAN region and in Malaysia, is endorsed by the Ministry of Communications, with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as host partner.

-- BERNAMA