Publication: Internet Access : Regulatory Levers for a Knowledge Economy
Loading...
Published
2003-03
ISSN
Date
2012-08-13
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Internet access depends on four critical players: First, providers of telecommunications infrastructure (bandwidth capacity) for international access to the global Internet backbone. Second, providers of national long-distance telecommunications transmission capacity (such as leased lines) to connect Internet service providers (ISPs) with one another and with international connectivity nodes. Third, providers of local loop access (narrowband and analogue, such as traditional copper wire connections, or broadband and digital, such as digital subscriber lines [DSL], cable television modems, and fixed wireless service). Fourth, ISPs, which provide Internet services to customers using these layers of networks. Expanding Internet access requires cooperative behavior by these players, and regulators have a key role in ensuring such behavior. A regulatory strategy for doing so focuses on promoting the telecommunications infrastructure, enabling viable ISPs, ensuring efficient pricing, maintaining appropriate service quality, supporting diffusion in remote areas, and ensuring legal certainty for electronic transactions. Promoting the telecommunications Infrastructure - competition is key. So regulators should take a permissive approach to licensing multiple financially sound providers (owners and resellers) of telecommunications infrastructure for international connectivity, alternative national long distance networks, and local loop access. To ensure competition in the ISP market, regulators should require no formal licensing for ISPs; simple registration should suffice.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Mustafa, Mohammad A.. 2003. Internet Access : Regulatory Levers for a Knowledge Economy. Viewpoint: Public Policy for the Private Sector; Note No. 256. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11321 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication Investment Climate in Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-07-01)The World Bank Group has been working on investment climate reform in Sub-Saharan Africa for nearly a decade, a period characterized by dramatic economic growth on the continent. Establishing links between such reform interventions and economic growth, however, is a complex problem. Although this note finds some connection between investment climate reform and economic growth, establishing more concrete evidence of causation will require greater focus at the country level, as well as on small and medium enterprises. This is where investment climate interventions generate change.Publication Competition and Poverty(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-04)A literature review shows competition policy reforms can deliver benefits for the poorest households and improve income distribution. A lack of competition in food markets hurts the poorest households the most. Competition in input markets and between buyers helps farmers and small businesses. And more competitive markets bolster job growth over the longer term. More research is needed, however, to better understand the impact of competition reforms and antitrust enforcement on poverty and shared prosperity.Publication Export Competitiveness(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06)This review of the empirical literature shows that industries with more intense domestic competition will export more. Competition law enforcement can be traced to export performance and is complementary to trade reforms. Pro-competition market regulation that reduces restrictions and promotes competition, where it is viable, is an important determinant for trade. The elimination of barriers to entry and rivalry, and a level playing field in upstream sectors contributes to export competitiveness in downstream manufacturing sectors. In some sectors, effective competition policy can directly lower trade costs.Publication Small Business Tax Regimes(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-02)Simplified tax regimes for micro and small enterprises in developing countries are intended to facilitate voluntary tax compliance. However, survey evidence suggests that small business taxation based on simplified bookkeeping or turnover is sometimes perceived as too complex for microenterprises in countries with high illiteracy levels. Very simple fixed tax regimes not requiring any books or records tend to be overly popular but prone to abuse. System reforms will require more precise tailoring of the simplified regimes to their target beneficiaries, coupled with strong compliance management to detect and deter abuse. The overall objective of simplified taxation for micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in developing countries is generally to facilitate voluntary tax compliance and remove obstacles in moving toward business formalization and growth.Publication Contract Farming(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-10)Contract farming involves production by farmers under agreement with buyers for their outputs. This arrangement can help integrate small-scale farmers into modern agricultural value chains, providing them with inputs, technical assistance, and assured markets. Critics contend that contract partners may subject farmers to abuses. The literature shows that in fact contract farming can raise farm income, but mainly for high-value crops. It also indicates that in many cases firms are willing to work with small farms. This note confirms that conflicts are common between buyers and farmers, and that alternative dispute resolution methods may help resolve them.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Building Broadband : Strategies and Policies for the Developing World(World Bank, 2010)This book suggests an ecosystem approach to broadband policy that could help in the design of strategies, policies, and programs that support network expansion, have the potential to transform economies, improve the quality and range of services, enable application development, and broaden adoption among users. To identify emerging best practices to nurture this ecosystem, this volume analyzes the Republic of Korea and other leading broadband markets. It identifies three building blocks to support the growth of the broadband ecosystem: defining visionary but flexible strategies, using competition to promote market growth, and facilitating demand. An important but often neglected building block is demand facilitation. This includes raising awareness about the benefits of broadband and improving affordability and accessibility for the largest number of users. Successful countries have often focused on creating a suite of useful applications that increase the relevance of broadband to the widest base of users. Programs to mainstream information and communication technology (ICT) use in education, health, or government have been common.Publication Trade in Information and Communication Services : Opportunities for East and Southern Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-11-01)This following report is divided into four chapters, with chapter one containing the introduction. Chapter two reviews the state of ICT-competitiveness in the case study countries, by looking at infrastructure, the legal and regulatory situation, the business environment, and human resources. Chapter three examines the benefits of ICT for the overall economy as well as for facilitating traditional trade and participating in emerging ICT-enabled services trade. It analyzes the case study countries' potential for becoming players in ICT-enabled services. Finally, chapter four identifies the case study countries existing WTO ICT-related commitments, pointing out what changes are necessary to make deeper commitments and hence strengthen credibility as reliable trading partners.Publication Broadband Wireless Access in Egypt(Washington, DC, 2006-12)This paper discusses current and future developments in wireless technology and infastructure in Egypt. One of the important regulatory decisions made in Egypt is that policy related to broadband wireless will be technology neutral. Consequently, the regulator cannot decide about which operators should use specific technologies. This approach is beneficial for the overall development of the market and deployment of networks because: It allows operators and service providers to decide on which technology or mix of technologies is best for given service and market requirements, budget outlays, and deployment scenarios. Such an approach promotes technical and economic efficiency since each service providerwill attempt to maximize revenues and their subscriber base. The flexibility allows the regulator to ensure that the market can deploy the latest technology with the least regulatory overhead. Allowing only one technology into the market place will restrict the range of choices available to consumers.Publication Socio-Economic Assessment of Broadband Development in Egypt(Washington, DC, 2010-08)The Government of Egypt has recognized broadband as being of strategic importance to the country´s economic and social development and it is developing a new strategy to develop access and use of broadband networks and services. As a specific target of this strategy, the government seeks to increase broadband penetration to 20 connections per 100 inhabitants by 2013. This report is the result of the second part of the existing reimbursable technical assistance on communications by which the World Bank has been providing assistance to the government of Egypt in the development of this broadband strategy. The objective of this particular assignment is to support the policy making process to develop broadband services and infrastructure throughout Egypt and achieve substantial economic impact in the economy including specific intermediary sectors. This assignment builds of the outcomes of the previously delivered study (strategic options for broadband development, 2010) and it uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches to provide specific advisory outputs.Publication Broadband in Russia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-01)It is widely recognized that broadband is of fundamental importance to the social and economic development of a nation. The focus of the paper is on infrastructure-related actions; measures to stimulate demand for broadband are, therefore, only marginally addressed. This paper aims to provide a platform for debate with the Russian counterparts in the sector, and to discuss the measures needed to develop broadband in support of actions aimed at economic growth. This paper examines the broadband market in Russia and preconditions for its sustainable development. It begins by presenting arguments demonstrating the importance of broadband to the overall economic development of Russia, including from the perspective of diversification of the economy and new job creation. The paper benchmarks Russia s broadband performance with Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comparators, as well as with other nations leading the way in broadband diffusion. The paper takes stock of the existing broadband market structure in Russia and its main players as they stand today, including the regulatory and legal environment of the market for both fixed and mobile broadband. Finally, the paper provides a set of recommendations that addresses the issue of sustainability in Russian broadband delivery, and how it can continue its acceleration in the years to come.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.