Publication:
Key Pathways to High-Speed Internet in the Middle East and North Africa: Spurring Competition and Building New Networks

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (609.82 KB)
397 downloads
English Text (9.62 KB)
25 downloads
Date
2015-03
ISSN
Published
2015-03
Author(s)
Gelvanovska, Natalija
Rogy, Michel
Abstract
Most countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are falling behind in their quest to develop high-speed Internet for rapid socioeconomic development. Despite young adults’ rising use of social networking tools and solid progress in a few countries, most of the region’s Internet remains hobbled by monopolized, inadequate infrastructure; weak investment incentives; and high costs. High-speed (broadband) Internet can drive economic and social transformations. To realize that potential, a recent World Bank study finds that MENA countries must pursue a three-pronged approach: reduce costs by fully liberalizing access to the existing Internet infrastructure; support the resulting competition with independent national regulators working within a harmonized regional framework of regulation; and promote investments in new fiber-optic networks and other ultrafast broadband infrastructure (including Long-Term Evolution or LTE) alongside existing technologies. With these measures, plus aggressive strategies for sharing public works infrastructure and subsidies for rural access, MENA can leapfrog its current information and communication bottlenecks.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Gelvanovska, Natalija; Rogy, Michel; Rossotto, Carlo Maria. 2015. Key Pathways to High-Speed Internet in the Middle East and North Africa: Spurring Competition and Building New Networks. Transport and ICT connections,no. 7;. © World Bank Group, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22303 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Associated URLs
Associated content
Citations