World Dialogue on Regulation

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and infoDev have released two sections for their joint ICT Regulation Toolkit initiative. This online toolkit is a module-based repository of regulatory information, practices and resources to address new and emerging  issues in a rapidly evolving regulatory terrain.

The ICT Regulation Toolkit builds extensively upon infoDev’s landmark Telecommunications Regulation Handbook, edited by Hank Intven – who is also involved in the new ICT Toolkit. The Handbook has been one of infoDev’s most successful resources, and was made available as a book as well as in the online modular format. The handbook is available online at the infoDev website in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
 
The ICT Regulation Toolkit is a web-based tool only – with no apparent plans for a hardcopy publication. This makes sense as one of the stated objectives of the project is to maintain the information and add links to new resources on an ongoing basis. This makes it a very dynamic resource.

The Toolkit website is extremely well-organised and accessible, and the detailed modules are broken down into short sections. The presentation effectively means that the text can be easily read on a computer screen and this is an important feature as it allows the reader to take advantage of the extensive hyperlinking to further resources and practice examples - which make the Toolkit a very rich experience.

The current line-up of modules include:

Module 1: Regulating the telecommunications sector - overview
Telecommunications growth and innovation, Telecommunications and economic development, rationale for regulation, Principles for effective regulation, Key success factors and risk of failure, Institutional responsibilities (expected by July 30, 2006).

Module 2: Competition and Price Regulation
Fair competition, Interconnection and access, Prices, Benchmark price regulation, Data requirements, Effective price regulation (expected by July 30, 2006).

Module 3: Authorization of Telecommunications Services
Introduction, Authorization approaches, Competitive licensing processes, Authorization practices, Special authorization situations  (now available).

Module 4: Universal Service
Principles and basic concepts, Market shortfalls and development gaps, Roles of the government and the private sector, Scope of support beyond the market, Principles of cost-effective support, Funding sources and mechanisms (expected by September 15, 2006).

Module 5: Radio Spectrum management
Technical introduction, Scope of spectrum use and issues, Internationaladministrative framework, National institutional arrangements, Allocating frequency bands among uses and technologies, users, Pricing Monitoring and enforcing, Current trends (expected by July 30, 2006).

Module 6: Legal and Institutional Framework
Laws and regulations, International treaties and agreements, WTO, National legislation and regulations; Institutional arrangements for telecommunications regulation; Regulatory processes, Relationships with judiciary and competition authorities; Governance, Realistic design options, Human resources and capacity building (now available).

Module 7: New technologies and impact on regulation
New technologies and applications, Convergence, Internet's impact on networks, business models, market structures, and regulation; Broadband, the way forward (expected by September 15, 2006)