According the LIRNEasia’s 2011 Telecom Regulatory Environment (TRE) survey, stakeholders in India, Pakistan and Indonesia have identified the telecom regulatory environments in their countries as improved since 2008, the last time the survey was carried out.   In contrast, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines have seen the regulatory environments decline in effectiveness, while Thailandremains more-or-less the same.

The TRE Survey asks senior level stakeholders to evaluate the effectiveness of the telecom regulatory environment in the fixed, mobile and broadband subsectors along a Lickert scale of 1 to 5 (1 being highly ineffective and 5 being highly effective, with the mid-point of 3 being considered average performance).  Seven different dimensions of regulation (market entry, tariff regulation, interconnection, universal service, anti-competitive-practices, quality of service) are evaluated by the stakeholders.    This year, 349 responded participated in the 7 countries.

Within a country, scores for each of the dimensions reflect specific issues: for example, in India, the lowest score (of 2.3 out of 5) was received by the Access to Scarce Resources dimension in the mobile-sub-sector.  This is perhaps not surprising given the 2G scandals in India.  However, India did finally get around to allocating 3G spectrum in 2010, and did so by having its first ever spectrum auctions. Perhaps because of this, or because stakeholders believe that that the 2G scandal has finally paved way for transparency in allocation, the score of 2.3 this year is still an improvement, though marginal,  over the 2008 score of 2.2.   India’s USD 4 billion+ undisbursed Universal Service Fund and related policies are responsible for its biggest TRE score decline: the TRE for USO drops from 3.1 in 2008 to 2.4 this year.  In contrast, tariff regulation in the mobile sub-sector continues to be the top performer with a score of 3.9 out of 5.0, indicating stakeholder satisfaction at TRAI’s policy of forbearance which has enabled Indian consumers to enjoy extremely low prices thanks to competitive forces.

Pakistan saw an increased in almost all dimensions, with the exception of 3 (fixed market entry, mobile access to scarce resources and mobile interconnection) which showed minor declines.   In contrast, Bangladesh saw scores in all seven fixed-subsector dimensions decline, in some cases by as much as 1 point.  The scores are perhaps reflective of the issues related to the cancellation of several fixed licenses.  Overall only seven dimensions showed improvements in Bangladesh, and even these were marginal.   Thailand, whose overall performance is unchanged, has however seen significant declines in its Market Entry scores due the uncertainties caused by the concession contracts granted to the mobile operators and what their status would be when they expire starting next year.

Detailed analysis of the scores is available in the draft country reports for Pakistan, India, Thailand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.

A comparative country analysis is also available online.

All reports and analysis is in draft form at present. We hope you will comment on the country reports and cross country comparisons so that we may improve our analysis.

 LIRNEasia Research Fellow and Associate Professor of Law at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) , Joseph Wilson, Ph.D., has been nominated to be a member of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP).

For more information, see news item in Daily Times, Pakistan

Following opening remarks by Chairman of PTA, Major General (R) Shahzada Alam Malik, Samarajiva and Wilson presented the new improved version of the six-country Telecom Regulatory Environment study, with emphasis on Pakistan.

de Silva discussed the results of the Teleuse @ the Bottom of the Pyramid (T@BOP) survey conducted in five countries, including Pakistan. Among other things, he discussed the disparate access to ICTs between men and women at the BOP as well as the tremendous progress made in connecting large numbers of people at the BOP in the past few years.

Iqbal presented comparative analysis of mobile prices in three countries of South Asia, using a basket methodology adapted from one used by the OECD since 1995. With these comparisons, she illustrated that Pakistan has the lowest prices for SMS and also for low-users.

From the Daily Times, Pakistan. 15 June 2007

Presentation slides:
Telecom Regulatory Environment 2006 | Rohan Samarajiva & Joseph Wilson
Teleuse@BOP: Pakistan in Asian Context | Harsha de Silva
Basket methodology to benchmark telecom prices in South Asia: The cases of Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka | Tahani Iqbal
News Releases:
TRE:Telecom Regulatory Environment (TRE) 2006 survey results: Pakistan among the leaders in Telecom Regulatory Environment, a regional study reveals
Teleuse@BOP: Pakistan BOP doing well overall in telecom, but large gender divide still exists
Price comparisons: Pakistan low-user mobile baskets cheaper than in India and Sri Lanka; SMS charge is lowest in South Asia and lower even than in the Philippines

Media coverage
pakcoverage14jun07_1.pdf
pakcoverage14jun07_2.pdf

The country reports can be downloaded here:

Pakistan country report – Joseph Wilson
India country report – Payal Malik
Philippines country report – Lorraine Carlos Salazar
Thailand country report – Deunden Nikomborirak
Sri Lanka country report – Malathy Knight-John
The Indonesia findings can be found in the following paper: Regulatory reforms and improved sector performance: A comparative analysis of Indonesia and India – Payal Malik and Divakar Goswami

The analytical framework can be found in the following paper: Competition in whichever way drives growth: An analytical framework of ICT sector performance in emerging Asia - Harsha de Silva

The WDR Expert Forum, held in association with the Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS), took place at the Changi Village Hotel, Singapore from March 2-3, 2007. The Forum focused on ICT sector and regulatory performance indicators and discussed the issues that NRAs and NSOs face with regards to data collection and definitions.

The presentations made are available for download below:

March 2, 2007

1. Introduction

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Speech

2. Overview of Regulatory Performance in Six South & South East Asian Countries: TRE Methodology and Results

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

3. Problems & Prospects for Standardizing Sector Performance by NRAs

Helani Galpaya and Sriganesh Lokanathan | Download Presentation

4. Integrating ICT Questions in the Work of NSOs

Harsha de Silva | Download Presentation

5. Challenges of High AMPU in a Low ARPU World

Mahinda Herath | Download Presentation

6. Fixed & Mobile Indicators: Definitions and Regional Illustration/Case Study

Malathy Knight-John | Download Presentation

7. Internet & ICT Indicators: Definitions and Regional Illustration/Case Study

Divakar Goswami | Download Presentation

8. Price/Affordability Indicators: Definitions and Regional Illustration/Case Study

Harsha de Silva | Download Presentation

9. Digital Divide and Demographic Indicators: Definitions and Regional Illustration/Case Study

Joseph Wilson | Download Presentation

March 3, 2007

1. Traffic (Utilization) and Revenue Indicators: Definitions and Regional Illustration/ Case Study

Lorraine Carlos Salazar | Download Presentation

2. Industry Structure and Industry Impact Indicators: Definitions and Regional Illustration/Case Study

Payal Malik | Download Presentation

As part of LIRNEasia‘s ongoing research on the Six Country Indicators Project, lead researchers working on assessing ICT sector performance and analysing the reform process in India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Philippines wil make their presentation on the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) applied to their respective countries. Payal Malik will make a presentation on the Policy Implications from the DOI analysis of India; Divakar Goswami will present on DOI Applied to Indonesia: Assessing ICT Policy & Regulatory Environment; Joseph Wilson will present on Digital Opportunities in Pakistan: An Overview and Lorraine Salazar will present on The Case of the Philippines. Papers, powerpoint presentations and conference report will be made available shortly. The DOF program is available here.
Along with exploring international cooperation in ICTs development, the Forum will focus on further developing the DOI composite index recently unveiled in the World Information Society Report 2006. There have been a number of initiatives to develop indices that allow cross-country comparison of ICT development. With the Digital Opportunity Index, however, we have a composite index that has the widest coverage of any of the other indices (180 countries); a modular design that allows specific aspects of ICT development to be measured; and most importantly, it has a relatively small number of indicators that makes collection of data more feasible. Furthermore, the DOI basket of ICT indicators provides not only traditional measures of infrastructure but also offers insights on ICT affordability and utilization, which are crucial components for measuring progress in bridging the digital divide. Despite its robustness, the DOI has scope for improvement, as some of the above papers explore in greater detail.