There is no doubt that it has been a trying and difficult year for the worldwide ICT industry, and for the global economy as a whole. Yet, we are presenting this 10th annual edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform, with a sense of hope and...

The year 2009 began in the midst of repercussions of the financial crisis, which spilled over from the previous year, putting many telecommunications/ICT businesses and enterprises at risk.

Huge strides in ICT service penetration have been made over the last decade, with particularly strong gains in mobile voice services. The leading causes are the lower cost of deploying mobile networks and competition in prices and services in the...

The ICT sector, known for experiencing investment troughs and peaks, has seen some difficult times over the last 20 years. The sector survived the 1987 market shock. It rode through the early 1990s recession with some casualties. Most recently, the...

One of the basic principles of telecommunications is that the value of a network is not based on the amount of investment sunk into it, but rather on the number of people, homes and businesses it can reach. Interconnection, then, is the key to...

Traditionally, mobile operators have set mobile interconnection rates through negotiation and commercial agreements, with the regulator serving only a mediating role where the parties failed to agree. The regulation of fixed interconnection rates, on...

The Dutch PTT used to have a commercial with the slogan, “If you can count to ten, you can call the world.” This slogan captured how users saw telephony then and today. They enter the digits on their phone and can reach the world. But the telephony...

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is perhaps the best example of a converged technology to be found in today’s telecommunication market. Over the last decade, driven by growth in broadband networks and cost reductions, VoIP services have...

Throughout the world, access to the Internet is increasingly considered an essential service. The need to be connected and “always-on” impacts the way consumers live and the way business is transacted. Whether it’s through a high-speed broadband or...

This time, it wasn’t our fault. The credit and economic crisis of 2008-2009 will not go down in history as another “dot-com bubble.” Driven by a more “bricks and mortar” bubble in real estate values, the current lean environment for network...