Regulation, not technology or investment, is holding back telecommunications development in countries that are home to more than three-quarters of the world’s population, according to a new report by the International Telecommunication Union released Tuesday. If not corrected, this could threaten emergence of a global information society, it adds.
New telecommunications technologies and the opportunities they bring are available to developing countries at an unprecedented level, says the report, Trends in Telecommunication Reform, 2007. Even the investment funds are available to pay for them, say the report’s authors. What is, however, all-too-often lacking is the right regulatory framework to support development.
The report lists a series of measures that developing countries should undertake in order to ensure they reap the benefits of information technology and do not wind up on the wrong side of the so-called "digital divide."
Next-generation networks offer the opportunity for developing countries to leapfrog several generations of technology, said Susan Schorr, the report’s lead author and senior regulatory advisor at the ITU’s Telecommunications Development Bureau. But in order to gain this advantage regulators and policy-makers in these countries need to better understand the technologies involved, she added.
The key obstacle to progress is all-too-often the licensing framework, she said. Regulators and policy makers need to ask themselves whether their way of regulating presents market entry barriers that may deter would-be investors, whether the regulatory framework is technology neutral.
“We have definitely seen a lot of progress throughout the developing world,” said Ms. Schorr, “but we need to see a lot more.” She cited Kenya, Mali, Nigeria and Tanzania as positive examples having all recently introduced technology neutral licensing.
The ITU is the Geneva, Switzerland, based United Nations agency responsible for information and technology issues. Some 150 of the ITU’s 191 member states are classified as developing countries with 50 of these classified as least developed countries.