World Dialogue on Regulation

1. Equitable access remains a major policy challenge

The main goal of public ICT policies is to achieve universal access. However despite pressure from multilateral and bilateral donor agencies to privatize monopolies and liberalize the markets and various policy interventions by states to do so, progress toward universal access to ICTs has been very slow. In other cases, state-run telecommunications systems have not functioned very effectively, failing by and large to provide access to the broader public.  Data published by the ITU in 2007, indicates that about 97% of the African and 90% of the Asian population did not own either the fixed phone or the computers and were not users of the Internet in 2005. 

2. Privatization was not the answer

Policies for equitable access tended to focus on privatization of incumbents as a means of improving efficiency there by increasing access and reducing cost of communication services. However experience shows that the transfer of fixed telephone services from public monopoly to private hands did not improve service penetration in the developing world. Evidence from Ghana and Uganda indicates that despite early on privatization, they did not achieve extended fixed line penetration. The sequencing of liberalization and privatization had also different outcomes for different countries. Some countries went straight to a full liberalization while the others to privatization with exclusivity (monopoly) period of five to ten years that preceded liberalization. The introduction of full competition with strong regulatory institutions would have brought better results than privatization with exclusive period and without competition.  Although opening up of the mobile segment has improved access to communication services dramatically, the cellular communication tariffs remained very high in the developing world.

3. Weakness of regulatory bodies is a key bottleneck

The regulatory frameworks in many countries have not been entirely effective, largely due to the institutional arrangements which seldom provide regulators with the autonomy, independence and legitimacy. It was also difficult to formulate, implement and enforce effective universal service strategies due to lack of specialist expertise and inability of the regulators to face powerful incumbents and operators. Moreover policies that promote pluralistic content have not been entirely successful due to strong government and private sector interests in the media. Regulators face skills and legitimacy challenges to promote competition and open access in national and regional broadband networks, define and implement universal service strategies and update regulations to meet technological changes (e.g. spectrum management) and the growing consumer needs.

4. Investment in broadband infrastructure is one of main universal access challenges

The key public policy issues of universal access include:

• Expanding affordable access to advanced broadband network and services to maximize the social benefits of the Internet. This would include access to fixed lines, payphones and mobile access through national and regional backbones. This can be achieved through technology neutral and horizontal regulations that promote open access – where every operator is able to connect to different networks on non-discriminatory basis
  
  
• Expanding services beyond communications to bring access to Internet, socio-economic content and communications. This requires broader definition of universal access and  looking beyond just access and affordability to basic telephony
  
  
• Encouraging private investment in backbone and wireless broadband infrastructure
  
  
• Minimizing the costs and subsidies by encouraging community-based innovations
  
  
• Introducing e-rates (discounted tariff) for expanding access in schools libraries and other public areas of  interest such as rural health care centres to expand access to information and communication technologies at the most affordable costs
  
  
• Encouraging champions and social entrepreneurs to innovate.

5. National e-strategies need to be evaluated for their impact on equitable access

Much of the access policy gaps are of regional and international nature. At national levels, there has been significant interest in the formulation of broad-based ICT policies (e-strategies) or master plans; some influenced by development agencies and others inspired by the success of Asian countries such as Singapore and South Korea and India.  Two thirds of African countries have now some form of broad-based ICT policies. However, many countries had difficulties in implementing these strategies due to lack of resources and over-ambitious targets set by information technology professionals. There is also disconnection between ICT sector reform and broad-based e-strategies. Analysis shows that developing ICT policies and e-strategies in a more organic fashion by relying on local expertise and focusing on building blocks like telecommunications infrastructure, enabling policies and incentives for private sector and promoting education could lead to better results than ambitious top down elaborate plans with a shopping list of activities. National ICT policies need to be evaluated and reviewed to meet technological changes and consumer needs, taking global experience over the last decade into the account.

6. Cross-border connectivity a major regional policy issue of access

Regionally there is a growing interest in backbone infrastructure and submarine cables. However the political, economic and regulatory differences in most countries pose major challenges for meaningful cross-border interconnection and policy harmonization. A significant amount of effort is needed to understand policy and regulatory gaps between different countries to address access pricing, cross-border connectivity and licensing issues.