After enactment of the Electronic Communication Act of 2005, there has been increased regulation in the electronic communications sector. The purpose of this study is to investigate how ICASA ensured regulatory quality when formulating regulations. Regulatory quality is an effective way of ensuring that new or amended regulations achieve they intended objectives. Failure to address regulatory quality may result in ineffective and costly regulations that negatively impact the electronic communications sector. This study revealed that there are regulatory quality gaps in the regulatory process followed by ICASA. The study established that there was lack of transparency and consistency in the process followed by ICASA when formulating regulations. The regulatory decisions made by ICASA were not evidence based as no ex-ante regulatory impact assessment was conducted. The regulatory environment within which ICASA operated was not conducive to enabling regulatory quality. The main factors contributing to an unsuitable regulatory environment were identified as prescriptive sector legislation, ineffective institutional arrangements, and ICASAs‘ lack of the capacity and resources.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographies. / by William Gaston Polk, Jr. / Ph.D.

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The liberalisation of domestic telecommunication (telecom) markets has become a worldwide trend. As a result, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), evolving from deliberations within the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has been heralded as the mechanism with which to effect telecom liberalisation domestically. For countries in Africa, the GATS instruments have been translated as a means to establish the principles required for an effective telecom industry supported by key institutions in policy, regulation and implementation. However, the analysis of relevant literature on telecom in Africa has tended to focus on technological developments based on current observable outcomes. This methodology is inadequate because it fails to account for the context-specific nature of the policy arena and framework shaping telecom outcomes. I argue that we must consider telecom outcomes by understanding the nature of political institutions domestically and their interaction with the international arena. To explicate this intersection of ideas, I draw on two seemingly independent theories, Neopatrimonialism and New Institutional Economics (NIE) with reference to the works of van de Walle (2001) and North (1990) respectively, to shed light on the nature of the Kenyan political context and the value of the GATS as an instrument that facilitates credibility and reduces opportunistic ex-post behaviour. It is contended in this study, that for the Kenyan Government, the value of the GATS accession lies in the legitimising role that it facilitates in accessing funds from the international community. This study thus highlights the inevitable tension that arises when domestic policy-reform goals are juxtaposed with international trade obligations undertaken through treaty accession and informed by a liberalisation agenda. A qualitative approach was used to collect the data and involved interviews and documentary analysis. The findings suggest that Kenya is partially in compliance with its GATS telecom commitments. However, this partial reform results from patrimonial tendencies in Kenya and is exacerbated by the need to attract hard currency through aid packages that dictate the nature of the policy process and the relationship between Kenya and the international community. In conclusion, even with policy reforms, state agents always find ways to maintain or create clientelist practises. Unless such reform is accompanied by political changes that provide checks and balances on institutions and state agents, reform policies on their own will not create an effective telecom sector. To truly evaluate telecom reform therefore, we must appreciate the context-specific nature of policy making.

This study applies a critical discourse analysis framework to an examination of the constitutive effects of three regulatory proceedings, called “The Computer Inquiries,” on contemporary notions about communications infrastructure policy. The Computer Inquiries are a trio of interrelated U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dockets focused on problems posed by the convergence of regulated telephony with unregulated computing services. The Inquiry docket texts, which date from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, are a basis for the liberalization of common carrier1 regulation and are the empirical evidence that the dissertation draws upon to trace the incremental evolution of terms used to define the boundaries between these converging services. Datasets include the 23 documents contained in three case studies: Computer Inquiry I (FCC Docket 16979), Computer Inquiry II (FCC Docket 20828), and Computer Inquiry III (FCC Docket 85-229). The first case study traces the incremental construction of a concept called “hybrid” services as the foundation for an FCC policy of “maximum industry separation” between common carriers and data processing companies. The second case study illustrates how the FCC subsequently re-engineered the hybrid concept into regulatory categories of “basic” and “enhanced” services. This definitional shift justified liberalizing the FCC’s maximum separation policy into a “modified” policy based upon a resale structure. The third case study demonstrates how the FCC further relaxed the resale policy by implementing accounting controls to distinguish between regulated common carriers providing the telecommunications infrastructure (conduit) used by unregulated information services (content) companies. Research reveals the malleable and somewhat arbitrary nature of regulatory distinctions between content and conduit as a basis for the FCC’s shifting jurisdictional authority over common carriers. During the course of the Inquiries, the FCC transitioned from a proactive to a reactive regulator with a discursive strategy involving what the dissertation calls “linguistic engineering.” Finally, the study notes the lack of attention to First Amendment and democracy concerns in all three Inquiry dockets. The dissertation concludes by calling for a Fourth Computer Inquiry to reconsider the legacy of the Computer Inquiries through which the principle of nondiscriminatory carriage of information by telecommunications providers has been eroded. / text

Our examination of ministerial licensing under the Radio Act, attempts to first show that its use in the early 1980s was driven more by a desire within the Department of Communications to be dominant in setting policy than by necessity. The case studies we then discuss show that the argument advanced at the time of the Department's announcement to license cellular---that there is greater accountability in expanding elected officials' powers in regulatory affairs---fails to prove itself in practice. After careful examination of the two cases in which Ministerial licensing has been used in Canada, this paper points problems with ministerial licensing. First, as our case studies will clearly show, Ministerial licensing is apparently incapable of providing any of the policy leadership or public accountability. Second, and perhaps more important in the long term, Ministerial licensing in telecommunications contravenes all of Canada's own efforts to secure a fair and procedurally defined international regime for telecom regulation. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This masters thesis analyzes telecommunications policies in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and relates these to the ongoing economic integration of these countries within MERCOSUR. To this end, a survey of the telecommunications sector in each of the MERCOSUR countries, depicting the main features of their respective regulatory framework, competition policy, and universal service goals is provided in Part II. Part III briefly describes the GATS/BTA framework and comments on MERCOSUR countries' commitments towards market liberalization. In Part IV, MERCOSUR's legal and institutional framework, along with the common initiatives that have been taken with respect to the telecommunications sector, are considered. By way of conclusion, Part V proposes further reflections on theoretical approaches aimed at framing telecommunications normativity in consideration of its dynamic interaction with globalization and integration in the context of MERCOSUR.

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The thesis begins with a literature review on the political economy of communication, paying particular attention to the impact of globalisation on the communications sector. It highlights conflictual relationships between commercialisation and democratisation in transforming broadcasting and telecommunications in an era of globalisation. In doing this the study contends that the process of democratisation and commercialisation are 'mutually incompatible', as one can only be realised at the expense of the other. Namibia gained its independence in 1990 and set out to transform and restructure its communication systems to respond to the demands of a new society. At the same time the country had to address the demands of an emerging global order. While trying to democratise and build a new nation based on the values of equity, social justice and participation, Namibia had to respond to commercial imperatives of global capitalism that were not necessarily compatible with the demands of democratisation and nationbuilding. The thesis argues that these conflicting demands resulted in challenges and contradictions experienced in the entire transformation process of the communications sector, which the State failed to overcome. The thesis examines the policy, legal and regulatory practices adopted by the State to transform the communications sector and assess the internal and external factors that led to the adoption of these practices. It illuminates the roles and responsibilities of this sector in the broader transitional process. In Chapters Six and Seven the thesis examines the restructuring processes of NBC and Telecom Namibia, at a micro level. This analysis pays particular attention to the manner in which these two institutions were streamlined (downsized and rightsized) in order to become effective, efficient and profitable in discharging their new mandate. It argues that the streamlining process prevented these institutions from properly performing some of their core mandates, particularly the provision of non-profitable public services. The thesis also interrogates the penetration of the new Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in Namibian society in Chapter Eight. It argues that while government adopted most of the relevant policies to establish an enabling environment for the transformation of the country into an 'information society', the penetration of the ICTs remained dismal. This elucidates the factors that led to this poor penetration. In conclusion the thesis provides a summary of the major findings and arguments. It contends that the neo-liberal policies of commercialisation and liberalisation adopted to transform the communications sector coupled with the restructuring of the national broadcaster and telecommunications operator along commercial lines tended to diminish rather than advance the goal of universal and affordable communications services to the majority of the people. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

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