Seminar on Enforcing Telecommunications Law, Policy and
Regulation
8 March 2005
Montbrillant Room H
Opening Remarks of BDT Director Hamadoun I. Touré
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome all of you to the ITU/BDT
seminar on enforcing telecommunications law, policy and regulation.
Today’s regulatory environment is experiencing dramatic changes as countries endeavor to bridge
the digital divide and join the Information Society. Around the globe, initial sector reforms have
resulted in an upsurge in the number of voice subscribers. The world now counts a combined total
of 2.7 billion fixed line and mobile subscribers. With a population fast approaching 6.5 billion
inhabitants, the progress made in expanding voice services would have been unimaginable just a
few short years ago. Much of this success in achieving universal access to voice services is due
to initial sector reforms. These initial reforms focused mainly on opening second-generation
mobile services to competition. Indeed 1.5 billion of today’s voice subscribers use mobile
networks, and the vast majority of them--56%--are in developing countries.
The question we all face is how to use the lessons of these initial sector reforms to achieve
universal access to more advanced ICT services, in particular access to broadband Internet.
Universal access to broadband Internet will be achieved through a fundamental shift in the
regulatory environment. Each year, as we organize the Global Symposium for Regulators and
prepare the annual ITU publication Trends in Telecommunication Reform, one thing is clear. The
regulatory environment is moving away from one marked by restrictive market entry, to one that
promotes market entry by a wide range of network operators and service providers. Countries are
increasingly opening their ICT markets to players using a full mix of technological options-upgraded traditional copper networks offering ADSL, cable TV modems, 3G mobile services,
VSATs, wireless broadband options, ultra wideband, software defined radios. The list grows every
day! Countries are also opening their markets to a full range of service providers, from nationwide
network operators to small and micro entrepreneurs providing rural Internet access points. What is
driving this shift? The goal of providing the lowest cost, highest quality broadband services to endusers.
This means countries are embracing more flexible licensing arrangements—as we explored in our
latest edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform, Licensing in an Era of Convergence—as
well as moving to more flexible spectrum management policies, including the use of unlicensed
spectrum bands and spectrum trading. Likewise, universal service obligations are giving way to
universal access opportunities for market players and end users alike.
In fact your discussions this week could not be more timely! Enforcement of enabling regulatory
frameworks is essential to all of our efforts to bridge the digital divide. Under the WSIS Action
Plan, governments underscored the importance of creating a trustworthy, transparent and nondiscriminatory legal, regulatory and policy environment that would maximize the benefits of the
Information Society. Putting into place more open regulatory environments means shifting
priorities to enforcing those regulations that will enable nations to meet their ICT development
goals. Enforcing fair interconnection terms and quality of service standards, for example, will be
key to achieving ICT development goals. Other regulations, designed at a time when policy
makers sought to protect a limited number of market players, may run counter to ICT development.
Many countries therefore are busy assessing which regulations are key to meeting their ICT
development goals, and which are no longer useful.
Once this assessment is complete, adequate powers and relevant tools have to be given to the
institutions tasked with enforcing rules designed to create a proper enabling environment.
Likewise, a context of proper practices and procedures within which enforcement action can take
place has to be established, including necessary checks and balances. But new methods can also
be tried. Operator and private sector participation in this process, for example, can be
encouraged. A complementary system of industry reporting and self-regulation can be put into
place in order to relieve some of the enforcement burden on the regulator. Similarly, regulators
can solicit industry feedback in determining reporting requirements and designing monitoring and
inspection routines, in order to strike a balance between ensuring adequate oversight and avoiding
burdensome requirements. Enforcement does not necessarily have to mean coercive action by
the regulator or result in litigation in the courts. Many problems can be solved without having to
make formal complaints. Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as arbitration and
mediation can often achieve the same results in a less contentious way. Moreover, promoting the
use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms can also reduce the enforcement burden on
beleaguered regulators and courts.
Likewise, the advent of new technologies is likely to affect when and how enforcement is
necessary--or can be achieved. Advances in radio technologies promise to open the door to
spectrum co-existence. If so-called “polite technologies” like dynamic frequency selection (DFS)
can keep interference down, does this mean that regulators may one day bring to end onerous
spectrum monitoring and enforcement tasks? Will the pressure of low cost technologies like VoIP
prove too much for the enforcement capabilities of regulators and policy makers? Increasingly, we
see countries re-evaluating current restrictions on VoIP.
Clearly, today’s technological and market developments pose many regulatory challenges. This
seminar is a unique opportunity to discuss these challenges and to share best practices on
enforcement. It is only by working together that smart policies and practices can be put into place.
As you may know, we are beginning preparations for the 2006 World Telecommunication
Development Conference (WTDC). The WTDC will determine our plan of activities for the next
four years. To gather inputs from all regions, we will hold preparatory meetings in each region this
year. The first regional preparatory meeting will take place in April in Bucharest. I encourage all of
you to participate actively and make contributions to the regional preparations, as well as to the
world conference so that we will have an action plan that best meets the needs of our membership.
I would like to hand over the meeting to Doreen Bogdan. Doreen is the head of the Regulatory
Reform Unit. She will walk us through our programme for today and introduce the moderators.