Some technical aspects of regulation

An approach to obtaining increased telecommunication efficiency is to privatise the monopolistic basic service provider. To help ensure the privatised operator strives for efficiency, competition is also introduced. The resultant competitive situation can however be unstable and some form of regulation is necessary. A pseudo-independent regulator can be appointed with the task of interpreting the relevant legislation on a day-to-day basis. The regulator must take in to account: the different regimes appropriate to basic service provision, added value service provision, and network attachments; the need for defined interfaces between these regimes; the challenge of international forces at all levels; the increasing range of public telecommunications networks; and commercial, political and doctrinaire pressures from all sides. The technical complexity associated with these challenges forms the core subject of the paper