Telecommunication reform in Ghana

In 1996 Ghana privatized its incumbent telecommunications firm by selling 30 percent of Ghana Telecom to Telekom Malaysia, licensing a second network operator, and allowing multiple mobile firms to enter the market. The reforms yielded mixed results. Landline telephone penetration increased dramatically while the number of mobile subscribers surpassed even this higher level of fixed line subscribers. On the other hand, the network did not reach the levels the government hoped, the second network operator never really got off the ground, and the regulator remained weak and relatively ineffective. The sustainability of competition is unclear. The government ended Telekom Malaysia's management of Ghana Telecom and has invited Norway's Telenor as a strategic partner. What this means in practice remains unclear, and the process for selecting Telenor lacked any transparency. Meanwhile, some of the mobile firms are in precarious financial positions. Competition is still relatively strong, but its sustainability will depend on the government's future commitment to ensuring it.Economic Theory&Research,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Rural Communications,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies

Telecommunications reform in Uganda

The paper documents the case of Uganda's telecommunications reform. Uganda is one of only two countries in Africa that decided to privatize telecommunications in a competitive framework by selling a second national operator license. The authors find that Uganda did not sacrifice significant sales proceeds by choosing competition, but instead gained tremendously in both the speed and scale of investment from its early focus on competition.Knowledge Economy,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,ICT Policy and Strategies,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Education for the Knowledge Economy

New tools for studying network industry reforms in developing countries : the telecommunications and electricity regulation database

Infrastructure industries-including telecommunications, electricity, water, and gas-underwent massive structural changes in the 1990s. During that decade, hundreds of privatization transactions valued at billions of dollars were completed in these sectors in developing and transition economies. While privatization has received the most attention, reforms also included market liberalization, structural changes like unbundling, and the introduction of new laws and regulations. To date, regulations have received far less attention than their potential economic effects warrant, largely due to lack of data. In order to address this problem, the authors set out to compile a comprehensive and consistent dataset through an extensive survey of telecommunications and electricity regulators in developing countries. The authors describe the surveys and the resulting database. The database of telecommunications regulations includes 178 variables on regulatory governance and content in 45 countries. The database of electricity regulations includes 374 variables in 20 countries.Administrative&Regulatory Law,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Trade Finance and Investment,ICT Policy and Strategies,ICT Policy and Strategies,Administrative&Regulatory Law,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,National Governance

New Tools for Studying Network Industry Reforms in Developing Countries: The Telecommunications and Electricity Regulation Database

Infrastructure industries including telecommunications, electricity, water, and gas underwent massive structural changes during the 1990s. During that decade, hundreds of privatization transactions valued at billions of dollars were completed in these sectors in developing and transitional economies. While privatization has received the most attention, reforms also included market liberalization, structural changes like unbundling, and the introduction of new laws and regulations. To date, regulations have received far less attention than their potential economic effects warrant, largely due to lack of data. In order to address this problem, we set out to compile an extensive, comprehensive, and consistent dataset through an extensive survey of telecommunications and electricity regulators in developing countries. Our database of telecommunications regulations includes 178 variables on regulatory governance and content in 45 countries. Our database of electricity regulations includes 374 variables in 20 countries.