Are Cost Models Useful For Telecoms Regulators In Developing Countries

As developing countries build up their capacity to regulate privatized infrastructure monopolies, cost models are likely to prove increasingly important in determining the efficient cost of providing a service to a certain area or type of customer. But cost models require reliable information, which is often scarce in developing countries. Census data and the location of wire services together may help provide the minimum information a regulator needs to implement a cost proxy model, a promising regulatory tool for assessing the efficient cost of providing a utility service.

The proposed cost model takes into account most features characterizing the development stage of telecommunications networks in Sub-Saharan Africa (small size of fixed network, importance of rural telephony, excessive reliance on microwave technology, explosive demand for mobile service, and weak regulatory capacity)."--BOOK JACKET.

This book contains a selection of articles from The 2016 World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST'16), held between the 22nd and 24th of March at Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. WorldCIST is a global forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss recent results and innovations, current trends, professional experiences and challenges of modern Information Systems and Technologies research, together with their technological development and applications. The main topics covered are: Information and Knowledge Management; Organizational Models and Information Systems; Software and Systems Modeling; Software Systems, Architectures, Applications and Tools; Multimedia Systems and Applications; Computer Networks, Mobility and Pervasive Systems; Intelligent and Decision Support Systems; Big Data Analytics and Applications; Human-Computer Interaction; Health Informatics; Information Technologies in Education; Information Technologies in Radiocommunications.

Private portfolio flows to a country tend to rise in response to an increase in the current account deficit, a rise in foreign direct investment flows, higher per capita income, and growth performance. The most important determinant of official lending to a developing country seems to be the external current account balance or a change in international reserves in the country.

In rural telecommunications, network costs are known to be high, and the traditional consensus has been that many rural areas cannot be connected without subsidies. This report examines options for implementing a charge regime in developing countries which takes account of the relative cost differences between urban and rural networks. Issues discussed include: customer affordability; customer education and awareness; numbering plan and billing; the need for detailed cost models; distortions created by asymmetric termination charges, and alternative implementation strategies.

This publication is a compilation of reports on research projects initiated, under way, or completed in fiscal year 2001 (July 1, 2000 through June 30, 2001). The abstracts cover 150 research projects from the World Bank and grouped under 11 major headings including poverty and social development, health and population, education, labor and employment, environment, infrastructure and urban development, and agriculture and rural development. The abstracts detail the questions addressed, the analytical methods used, the findings to date and their policy implications. Each abstract identifies the expected completion date of each project, the research team, and reports or publications produced.

The United Kingdom generally fights poverty directly - through the government's benefit system - and not through utilities. But Bristish regulators have taken certain measures that help utility consumers (mostly, but not always, poor consumers). Other countries may be able to copy some of their techniques.

One reason intermediate exchange rate regimes have fallen out of favor is that they are not transparent or easy to verify. A simple peg or a simple float may be easier for market participants to verify than a more complicated intermediate regime.