Access and Investment in the ICT Sector for Developing Countries
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Vikas Kathuria
Abstract
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is characterized by rapid changes in technology. The innovation in the ICT has shown its benefits in not only facilitating better communications, but also in fostering development. Therefore, ensuring proper incentives to the private sector for innovation or diffusion of technology is crucial. However, incentivizing the private players may be challenging in developing countries, where majority of the population requires cheap access. Thus, this paper analyses the extent to which developing countries can ensure incentivizing the providers of technology, without failing on their commitment to provide cheap access to the poor. The paper analyses Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) and Universal Service Obligation (USO) and suggests ways to ensure adequate investment without jeopardizing access. The framework chosen in this paper is to see the changing treatment of LLU and USO in mature jurisdictions, and then analyze the viability of these policies in the socio-economic settings of developing countries. The framework also takes note of changes in the ICT technology.
Acknowledgements
I gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of my supervisors Dr Pierre Larouche and Dr Morag Goodwin. Comments of the anonymous referees were very helpful. Thanks are also due to Dr, Rajat Kathuria and his team at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi.
©2016 Law and Development Review
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Access and Investment in the ICT Sector for Developing Countries
- Governing Mining Resources in the History of Colombia: Between Official Institutions and Resistance
- Overcoming the Development Deficit of Article XXIV: Promoting Equality through North-South RTAs
- Law and Innovation Policies: An Analysis of the Mismatch between Innovation Public Policies and Their Results in Brazil
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Access and Investment in the ICT Sector for Developing Countries
- Governing Mining Resources in the History of Colombia: Between Official Institutions and Resistance
- Overcoming the Development Deficit of Article XXIV: Promoting Equality through North-South RTAs
- Law and Innovation Policies: An Analysis of the Mismatch between Innovation Public Policies and Their Results in Brazil
- The Odd Couple: Uniting Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainable Development under the Clean Development Mechanism
- Foreign Aid, Law Reform, and the World Bank’s Doing Business Project
- An Examination of the Good Governance Legal Framework of Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Act 2007
