The debate continues in the telecommunications industry over the virtues and sins of regulatory intervention. Some argue for the abolition of industry-specific regulators and the transfer of regulatory functions to competition authorities and the judicial system. However, this overlooks the growing importance given in many countries to the role of independent regulation as a mean for achieving effective competition in communication services. Years of open markets in industrialized nations have still not done away with regulatory agencies. Effective competition is not easy to achieve and telecommunication regulators are, for the time being, the best formula for tackling the matter. If even mature markets sometimes require regulatory intervention, then the demand for it is even more acute in less developed nations where market forces are weaker and incumbents well positioned to abuse their dominance in the marketplace.