Nepal lags comparable countries in Asia, in part due to civil unrest and constant changes in government. There has been little resolve to implement policies and few incentives to do so. An operator partly belonging to a son-in-law of the King was favoured, until the monarchy ceased. Spectrum for...

In cases of “bill shock” customers receive invoices from hundred to tens of thousands of Euro for use of mobile broadband when abroad. The EU Roaming Regulation requires operators to protect customers by providing prices and managing their monthly spending limit. In the USA, the FCC has an...

The persistence of high prices for international mobile roaming services, in contrast to falling national mobile prices, has been a recognized item on the global regulatory agenda for half a decade. In Africa, there have been studies and discussions about regulatory options in regional economic...

Corruption has long been endemic in Indian telecommunications. Individuals and small contractors must pay bribes or "facilitation fees" to obtain a fixed line or to release a payment for a contract or, even, a pension. Investigation of complaints about the government and state-owned operators...

Despite strong traditions of research into corruption and into telecommunications policy and regulation, the two are almost never combined, an absence that remains unexplained. One possibility is that it is “dangerous” in terms of physical harm, financial harm from defamation law suits or...

The growth of Internet access enabled the creation of functions (e.g., e-commerce and search) that were initially convenient but which a small number of firms used to achieve winner-takes-all, through the application of ICTs, network externalities and two-sided markets. They turned themselves...

Once governments in Africa were persuaded to create markets for mobile telecommunications, a complex game of buying and selling licences and licensed operators began, that has seen the rise and fall of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Their geographic footprints reflect complex patterns of when...

Once again the issue of a plebiscite for the independence of Scotland is being discussed. The likely effects of independence on the telecommunications sector have previously been analysed, but need both to be reconsidered and to be subjected to debate and parliamentary scrutiny. Necessarily, it...

This paper compares and contrasts the processes used by the European, United Kingdom and Scottish parliaments in considering broadband policies, legislation, regulatory systems and outcomes, within a complex triple-tiered governance system. Broadband is of increasing importance due to the...

The government of South Africa has issued a draft policy to accelerate network deployment. The legal basis is to be the Electronic Communications Act (ECA), but the policy intrudes into areas of property ownership and the powers of municipalities. Consequently, there would be no legal basis for...