This title presents the case that opening international voice communication to competition is key to reform the telecommunications sector, is sustainable in developing countries, and results in major gains to consumers, businesses, and to the economy. Over the last 20 years full competition became a dominant attribute in virtually all high-income countries and in selected developing countries. Three forces were behind competition: globalization, technological change, and the emergence of international telecommunications as an enabler for integration and trade. Now over 80 percent of global...

Just as the steam engine was the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution, today, broadband Internet is seen as critical to the transition of knowledge-intensive economies across the world. As a general purpose technology, broadband Internet is considered a fundamental driver of economic growth and social development, releasing the innovative potential and energy of previously disenfranchised members of the population. Many of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) now recognize that broadband Internet is crucial to their efforts to reduce poverty and create job...