Essential Guide to Telecommunications, The, Third Edition

Africa and the Middle East—Emerging Markets

There is an evolution toward liberalizing telecommunications regulations in emerging markets. This evolution is driven by the desire to attract private money. The government is the main driver of the economies in Africa and Middle East. It owns the incumbent telephone companies that have monopolies in their respective countries. African businesses that apply to the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for funds are required to meet conditions liberalizing and privatizing enterprises. Another factor in most of the countries is their desire to be part of the World Trade Organization, WTO to gain trading partners. Countries that join the WTO have to meet treaty liberalization clauses to ...