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• ICT Regulatory Harmonization:A Comparative Study ofRegional Initiatives - December 2009
  • Table of contents
  • Executive Summary
    • CONTEXT
    • MAIN FINDINGS
  • Report
    • REGIONAL INITIATIVES FOR HARMONIZATION OF THE ICT LEGAL AND REGULATORYFRAMEWORK: LEGAL BASES, LEGAL FORM AND ENFORCEMENT
      • 1 Regional integration organizations initiated regulatory harmonization
        • 1.1 African Union (AU)
        • 1.2 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
        • 1.3 West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA)
        • 1.4 Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS)
        • 1.5 Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC)
        • 1.6 East African Community (EAC)
        • 1.7 Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
        • 1.8 Southern African Development Community (SADC)
        • 1.9 InterGovernemental Authority on Development (IGAD)
        • 1.10 Indian Ocean Commission (IOC)
      • 2 Regional ICT/Telecommunication regulators’ associations are key players inregulatory harmonization
        • 2.1 Association of Regulators of Information and Communications for Eastern andSouthern Africa (ARICEA) of COMESA
        • 2.2 African Telecommunication Regulators’ Assembly (ATRA)
        • 2.3 Committee of Regulators (CRTEL) of UEMOA
        • 2.4 Communication Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) for SADC
        • 2.5 East Africa Regulatory, Postal and Telecommunications Organization (EARPTO)for EAC, now called East African Communications Organization (EACO)
        • 2.6 Technical Committee for Regulation (CTR) of CEMAC
        • 2.7 Telecommunication Regulators’ Association of Central Africa (ARTAC) forECCAS
        • 2.8 West African Telecommunication Regulators’ Assembly (WATRA) for ECOWAS:
      • 3 Regional courts as potential players in regulatory harmonization initiatives
        • 3.1 AU Court of Justice
        • 3.2 CEMAC Court of Justice
        • 3.3 COMESA Court of justice
        • 3.4 EAC Court of Justice
        • 3.5 UEOMA Court of Justice
    • COMPARATIVE STUDY AND GAP ANALYSIS OF REGIONAL REGULATORY HARMONIZATIONINITIATIVES
      • 1 Comparative study
        • 1.1 Harmonization method (Table 1)
        • 1.2 Harmonized content (Table 2)
      • 2 Gap analysis
        • 2.1 Harmonization method
        • 2.2 Harmonization contents
      • 3 Key differences and commonalities for harmonized contents
        • 3.1 Licensing
        • 3.2 Universal service and access
        • 3.3 Scarce resources: frequencies and numbering
        • 3.4 Interconnection
        • 3.5 Cybersecurity
        • 3.6 Consumer's protection
        • 3.7 Competition
        • 3.8 Pre-selection, sharing of infrastructures and roaming
    • SWOT ANALYSIS AND INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS
      • 1 Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis
        • 1.1 African Union (AU)
        • 1.2 Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)
        • 1.3 Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)
        • 1.4 West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA)
        • 1.5 Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS)
        • 1.6 Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC)
        • 1.7 Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
        • 1.8 East African Community (EAC)
        • 1.9 Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD)
        • 1.10 Indian Ocean Commission (IOC)
        • 1.11 Southern African Development Community (SADC)
      • 2 Comparing African telecommunications harmonization initiatives withEuropean Union and United States respective harmonization process
        • 2.1 Comparison with the European Union (EU)
        • 2.2 Comparison with the United States (US)
    • EIGHT FORWARD LOOKING RECOMMENDATIONS
      • 1 Adopting an overall strategy
      • 2 Setting common principles in a pan-African binding instrument
      • 3 Organizing consultation and consensus-building at all levels (pan-Africanlevel, regional and national level)
      • 4 Setting common streamlined processes for each and every regionalorganizations
      • 5 Setting an independent pan-African regulatory agency with enforcing powerstogether with a pan-African appeal mechanism
      • 6 Reducing level of regulatory discretion at national and regional level
      • 7 Increasing clarity and transparency with more detailed and binding rules
      • 8 Developing pan-African competition law
  • Annexes
    • ANNEX 1 : LIST OF REGIONAL INITIATIVES FOR HARMONIZATION OF THE LEGAL ANDREGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR ICT IN AFRICA
      • 1 International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
      • 2 African Union (AU)
      • 3 Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)
      • 4 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
      • 5 West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA)
      • 6 Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS)
      • 7 Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC)
      • 8 Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
      • 9 East African Community (EAC)
      • 10 InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
      • 11 Indian Ocean Commission (IOC)
      • 12 Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)
    • ANNEX 2 : LIST OF INITIALS AND ACRONYMS
    • CONTACTS