Issues discussed and recommendations/suggestions mooted during the workshop were classified
as follows:

● Enhancing the development of and access to infrastructure
● Enabling policies and financial frameworks
● Advancing the development dimensions of ICT regulation
● Offering technology choice, responding to demand and addressing the
challenges/opportunities of convergence

Under enhancing the development of and access to infrastructure a clear message from the
workshop was the need to address the reinforced monopolies that exist around access to
international infrastructure by local operators; this refers to the phenomenon, prevalent in the
majority of developing countries, whereby the incumbent/national operator is the sole provider of
basic telecom services that are key to the availability of the Internet and its affordability. The
monopoly status occurs because such operators control access to physical infrastructure and/or
operate under licensing regimes that are favourable to them but which are prohibitive and
inadvertently limit competition. Specifically, workshop participants spoke of the need to open up
international and terrestrial backbone infrastructure (e.g. through stronger regulation of backbone
infrastructure and shared access/investment).

It was under this topic of discussion that participants voiced an opinion that was to be repeated in
other access workshops and during the plenary – that competition works; and that principles of
'open access'8 should be applied evenly to all areas of the telecom sector. This statement on
competition was made with reference to the experience of equipment providers who operate in
highly competitive markets and whose performance and efficiencies have benefited from the
competitive environment.

The fostering of competition and facilitation of multiple players in telecom markets requires
enabling policies and financing frameworks; licensing procedures should be simplified, as
should the regulation and cost of interconnection. Furthermore, countries should allow for and
promote the use of new technologies/applications – with specific examples being given of the use
of VOIP in rural areas.

In relation to rural and underserved areas, workshop participants noted the need for stakeholders
to recognise that a “different” approach to regulation may be needed under these circumstances.
Specifically, participants challenged the translation of 'traditional urban-centric' legal/regulatory
frameworks - which are mostly focused on competitive markets where consumers have choice - to
rural areas where 'business models', economic contexts, communication needs and appropriate
technologies are different. Recognition of these differences and the opportunities and constraints
they present leads to an appreciation of the importance of diverse network operators and providers
in such areas; these include community operators, and economic producers/organisations who
might also serve as providers of ICT services.

Such diversity can be encouraged by “incentivising” not only competitive behaviour but also
collaborations that take advantage of complementarities between different aspects of infrastructure
ownership and service provision - for example collaboration in fostering and financing infrastructure
development, encouraging the aggregation of demand, and of financial and technical resources
etc.

Collaborations should also be considered and encouraged with non-telecom partners. This
requires a rethink of traditional perspectives of telecom regulation that are predominantly sector
specific, and the adoption of more economically and socially inclusive perspective/approach
instead. Such an approach/perspective would see ICTs as more than just a communicative tool
but as key to local development. In particular, workshop participants promoted the idea of a multisectoral
approach to regulation and/or adoption of a multi-sectoral regulator model - where the
focus is on exploiting the complementarities between different types of infrastructure (e.g. laying
down roads, water canals, power and ICT cabling or use of power grid for enable ICT) so as to not
only reduce costs of infrastructure development but also to contribute to the potentially more
effective use of universal access funds and/or scare development resources.

There is therefore a clear need for the IGF to advance the development dimensions of ICT
regulation. This can be achieved by enhancing the priority of ICTs in development (and
investment) decision-making spaces and by encouraging the creation of incentives that promote
ICTs as a development tool - particularly at the level of rural/local access. Such regulation would
incorporate more than market-driven incentives and/or address a market-failure situation, but seek
to locate ICT regulatory policy in the context of development and local development strategies.
This would focus on complementarities in providing and financing critical infrastructures and
include the promotion of public-private partnership models. Such regulation would also move
beyond just direct uses of ICT but also consider its transformative aspects in terms of local
development opportunities by enabling the reorganisation and enhanced viability of local
enterprises, and empowerment of stakeholders etc.

A focus on the developmental aspects of ICTs also requires that regulation promotes
technological choice, responds to the demands of communities, and addresses the
challenges/opportunities of convergence.

The rapid uptake of mobile phones in developing nations means that they are now considered to
be viable technology for providing voice, access to the Internet and a variety of financial and egovernance
services - at least at present. Regulation must therefore provide an enabling
environment for the use of the technology for such purpose. A realisation of the potential role
mobile phones will play in developing countries, also necessitates the promotion of content
creation for such devices, as well as services and applications that meet the local need - for
example financial content (that – with respect to a multi-sector approach to telecom regulation -
would require cooperation between telecoms (mobile) and financial sectors).

In responding to the demands of communities, regulation needs to facilitate exploration of new
generation community-driven networks as platforms for a variety of ICTs - cheap telephony,
community-radio and Internet-based content. Such networks offer a potentially more economically
sustainable basis by (i) helping to aggregate and grow demand (rather than only focusing on
shared access) for a range of ICTs and services that can be provided on the platform and (ii) by
being more responsive to current/changing community needs as the focus is not on any one
technology.

The demands on regulators and regulation are significant – in terms of creating, implementing, and
managing access incentives, coordinating with complementary sectors, promoting the
developmental aspects of ICTs, promoting diverse participation in the provision of products and
services in rural and underserved areas etc. The need to build up the capacities of regulators can
therefore not be over stated - particularly in light of converging technologies that hold great
opportunities for the delivery of services but also introduce great challenges and complexity to the
work of regulators.

[8]“Open Access is about creating competition in all layers of the IP network allowing a wide
variety of physical networks and applications to interact in an open architecture.” InfoDev:
Open Access Models: Options for Improving Backbone Access in Developing Countries (with
a Focus on Sub-Saharan Africa) August 2005 http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.
10.html