Telecommunications in developing countries: reflections from the South African experience

Gertrude Makhaya and Simon Roberts

Telecommunications Policy, vol. 27, issue 1-2, 41-59

Abstract: South Africa has embarked on a process of privatisation of telecommunications while at the same time aiming to extend telecommunications services to a larger proportion of the population. The article reviews the debates on privatisation and international experience with a particular emphasis on issues of economic development and regulation. The experience of South Africa is then analysed in terms of different indicators of performance, the regulatory record and the progress on service extension. The findings indicate that there have been undoubted gains in the quality and range of services. However, in common with other countries, the South African case also highlights the importance of strong capabilities in regulation, and the problems of service extension under a shift to private-sector imperatives.

Keywords: South; Africa; Telecommunications; Privatisation; Regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596102000903
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:telpol:v:27:y::i:1-2:p:41-59

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... /30471/bibliographic

Access Statistics for this article

Telecommunications Policy is currently edited by Erik Bohlin

More articles in Telecommunications Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().