Mitigating Regulatory Risk in Telecommunications
Author: Peter L. Smith and Björn Wellenius Date: 7/1/1999 (PDF, 200KB)
In the transition from state-owned monopolies to privately led and increasingly competitive market structures in telecommunications, poor performance of regulatory agencies limits the benefits of reform. This Note proposes measures for establishing a regulatory framework that enables better sector performance even when a full-fledged regulatory agency is lacking. These measures reduce the need for agency decisions--for example, by prepackaging rules and accelerating competition. They enhance the credibility of regulation--for example, by locking in principles through international agreements. And they generate maximum impact from scarce professional and financial resources by using them effectively--such as by contracting out functions and creating multisectoral or regional agencies.