The International Chamber of Commerce has launched a new guide to assist countries considering or embarking on the liberalization of their communications infrastructure.
Written by ICC telecoms experts, Telecoms liberalization: An international business guide for policymakers lays out the benefits of liberalization, while addressing the challenges. Featuring case studies, a liberalization roadmap, and a six-point summary of success factors, the no-nonsense, jargon-free booklet is designed to assist government decision-makers in the transition from a monopolistic to a competitive telecom market.
"The last decade of telecoms liberalization has left behind some of the countries who could benefit the most," said ICC Secretary General Maria Livanos Cattaui. "I asked ICC experts to pool their expertise and experience in many different countries, and put it in a format decision-makers can refer to and apply in their own situations."
Countries that have successfully liberalized their communications infrastructure have demonstrated that liberalization can deliver clear benefits to everyone; namely better communications services at lower prices. It can also bring investment for new and upgraded infrastructure, a necessity to make the Internet and mobile communications available to all.
But experience also shows that the path to liberalization isn't without pitfalls, which is where business can play its part.
"Industry takes very seriously the need to illustrate and explain liberali zation in a way that those countries still examining it can understand its benefits and feel confident about their own initiatives," said Philippe Wintrebert, AT&T France, Vice-Chair of the ICC Commission on E-Business, IT and Telecoms.
"There are no shortcuts to liberalizing telecoms and every country is indeed unique. However, lessons can be taken from successes to date. This guide is written clearly and without policy jargon in an effort to make it easy to read and understand the difficulties as well as the real benefits of liberalization," he added.
Telecoms Liberalization: An international business guide for policymakers is published as part of the ICC E-Business Tools, a series of pamphlets that disseminate policy models and best practices for the online world.
