Legal and Regulatory Frameworks

Both competition and regulation give rise to legal challenges. In the pre-liberalization telecommunications environment, the role of law and regulators was a limited one. But since liberalization these have been evolving. Telecommunications policy and regulations are underpinned by law. An awareness of key aspects of the law is necessary to grasping the full implications of the economic and technical changes taking place within the industry and host societies. Intrinsic constraints imposed by legal rights are not often clearly understood. These apply to the telecommunications sector, as convergence brings together issues of both carriage and content and competition pith the incumbent against new incoming players, all of whom are subject to state-determined as well as global regulatory systems.