The 10th edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform, ITU’s flagship annual report on the state of ICT regulation worldwide, argues that enlightened ICT regulation can effectively play the role of a ‘stimulus plan’, driving network investment, growth and development. The report draws on the discussions held during ITU’s annual Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), which was held last November in Beirut, Lebanon and welcomed over 600 regulators from around the world.
ITU argues that regulators and policymakers can proactively address the risk of under-investment in tomorrow’s networks through a two-pronged approach that looks at how governments lend money to the private sector through Public-Private Partnerships, ICT stimulus plans and other funding programmes; and how effective regulatory strategies and policies — both financial and non-financial — can play their part in maintaining the momentum. But to be effective, these strategies must be underpinned by strong regulatory institutions and transparent policies and procedures — the bedrocks of effective regulation.
Regulatory trends, 1990-2009
Source: ITU Telecommunication Regulatory database.
Clearly, ICTs can have an enormous impact on everyday lives and economic activity, but the opportunities only materialize fully when the regulatory framework fosters investment and widespread diffusion of ICTs. Without these conditions, the full promise of ICTs remains unrealized.
The past two decades seem to confirm the power of the regulatory reform trinity: separate regulators, competition, and privatization (see Figure above). By following, adapting and often reinventing any of these three, countries around the world have revitalized their telecommunication and information technology markets, kicking off the irreversible transformation into digital economies. Importantly, most countries have created separate regulatory authorities that are independent in their decisionmaking. The number of separate regulatory authorities has increased from only 12 in 1990 to 153 at the end of 2009.
Telecommunication regulators have played a leading role in creating an enabling environment fostering innovation and investment. They have gradually opened fixed-line services to competition totalling 124 competitive markets as of 2009, almost inevitably privatizing the national fixed-line incumbent along the way. The overall objective of regulators has been to ensure that public policy objectives for the sector continued to be met and even exceeded.
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