Do telecom restrictive policies matter for telecom performance ? : evidence from MENA countries

الملخص EN

-The past decade has witnessed a significant transformation in the trade and regulatory policies of the telecom sector across the MENA region.

Many countries committed to opening up their telecom sector to trade and investment under WTO commitments.

However, these commitments do not always reflect actual policies.

Although some MENA countries started easing telecom market restrictions and tended to adopt more open policies, other countries are still reluctant to change and continue to adopt highly restrictive policies limiting foreign ownership and control in the market.

This paper empirically assesses the impact of the existing telecom restrictions on landline and mobile sector performance, using the World Bank Services Trade Restrictiveness Database (STRD), with a focus on MENA countries.

We use three-stage least squares-Seemingly Unrelated Regression (3SLS-SUR) to test for the effect of restrictions and the level of competition in the telecom sector on selected performance indicators.

Our findings suggest that restrictive telecom policies are more likely to affect landline rather than mobile communications.

Moreover, being a MENA country affects the level of competition in the landline market.

MENA countries are very protective of their incumbent operators, irrespective of the stipulated legal restrictions in place.