In January 2012 the Westminster government offered to devolve to the Scottish Parliament the powers necessary to conduct a referendum on the independence of Scotland, with the possibility of repealing the Act of Union of 1707. This could return Great Britain to a Union of the Crowns, with...

Greece had, largely as a result of clientele policies, delayed its privatization of the state-owned telecommunications operator, the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) and the liberalization of markets. For over a decade up to 2004 Siemens paid bribes to managers of OTE, to senior...

In December 2011, prosecutors in the United States of America announced the settlement of cases against Magyar Telekom and Deutsche Telekom in respect of bribery of officials in two countries in the Balkans. In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) they had obtained a delay in a...

Climate change is recognized by both the African and European Unions as a significant challenge in terms of mitigation and adaptation, requiring technological advances and transfers. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are believed to contribute around 2.5% of global emissions of...

In March 2011 three national network operations were exchanged between América Móvil and Digicel, withdrawing from competing in each other’s markets: El Salvador, Honduras and Jamaica. The effect was significantly to reduce the levels of competition at the time and in the future, by...

Survey data for the adoption of broadband and the Internet point to significant regional variations. While there continues to be growth at the UK level, the adoption of broadband in Scotland appears to have stalled, in contrast to the three other nations. Internet adoption shows a similar...

Governments in a number of countries are concerned about the high surcharges for international mobile roaming and instances of “bill shock”. Russia has used competition law to force down excessive prices. Singapore has introduced consumer protection against bill shock. The USA has consulted...

Benin is a country of some 8.7 million people, having grown rapidly from only four million in 1985. It had a GDP per capita of only USD 1,119 in 2006, less than half the African average of USD 2,844. Mobile telephony was the only infrastructure in which the country scored well. The number of...

The development of national broadband plans has been used by many countries to join up different areas of governmental and regulatory activities and to set ambitious targets for ubiquitous access to and use of the latest fixed and wireless networks and services. For Scotland this requires...

South Africa has performed poorly in delivering broadband to its citizens, with very limited access and little effort to boost its adoption. It compares badly to the BRICs and to other comparable nations, while having lost its position as African leader. The African National Congress (ANC)...