IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/2983.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Telecommunication reform in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Haggarty, Luke
  • Shirley, Mary M.
  • Wallsten, Scott

Abstract

In 1996 Ghana privatized its incumbent telecommunications firm by selling 30 percent of Ghana Telecom to Telekom Malaysia, licensing a second network operator, and allowing multiple mobile firms to enter the market. The reforms yielded mixed results. Landline telephone penetration increased dramatically while the number of mobile subscribers surpassed even this higher level of fixed line subscribers. On the other hand, the network did not reach the levels the government hoped, the second network operator never really got off the ground, and the regulator remained weak and relatively ineffective. The sustainability of competition is unclear. The government ended Telekom Malaysia's management of Ghana Telecom and has invited Norway's Telenor as a strategic partner. What this means in practice remains unclear, and the process for selecting Telenor lacked any transparency. Meanwhile, some of the mobile firms are in precarious financial positions. Competition is still relatively strong, but its sustainability will depend on the government's future commitment to ensuring it.

Suggested Citation

  • Haggarty, Luke & Shirley, Mary M. & Wallsten, Scott, 2003. "Telecommunication reform in Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2983, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2983
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2003/03/29/000094946_03031804031943/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ros, Agustin J, 1999. "Does Ownership or Competition Matter? The Effects of Telecommunications Reform on Network Expansion and Efficiency," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 65-92, January.
    2. Scott J. Wallsten, 2001. "An Econometric Analysis of Telecom Competition, Privatization, and Regulation in Africa and Latin America," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 1-19, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Iimi, Atsushi, 2007. "Price structure and network externalities in the telecommunications industry : evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4200, The World Bank.
    2. Clarke,George R. & Gebreab, Frew A. & Mgombelo, Henr, 2003. "Telecommunications reform in Malawi," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3036, The World Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Agiakloglou, Christos & Gkouvakis, Michail, 2015. "Causal interrelations among market fundamentals: Evidence from the European Telecommunications sector," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 150-159.
    2. Andres, Luis & Foster, Vivien & Guasch, Jose Luis, 2006. "The impact of privatization on the performance of the infrastructure sector : the case of electricity distribution in Latin American countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3936, The World Bank.
    3. Riham Ahmed Ezzat, 2015. "Paving the way for better telecom performance: Evidence from the telecommunication sector in MENA countries," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01164199, HAL.
    4. Wallsten, Scott, 2005. "Regulation and Internet Use in Developing Countries," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 501-523, January.
    5. Lim, Eng Kooi & Chen, Zhiqi, 2012. "The impact of trade liberalization in telecommunications services: The case of APEC countries," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 274-281.
    6. Ba, Lika & Gasmi, Farid, 2011. "To what extent do infrastructure and financial sectors reforms interplay? Evidence from panel data on the power sector in developing countries," IDEI Working Papers 692, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    7. Wallsten, Scott, 2002. "Does sequencing matter? regulation and privatization in telecommunications reforms," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2817, The World Bank.
    8. Gasmi, Farid & Recuero Virto, Laura, 2010. "The determinants and impact of telecommunications reforms in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 275-286, November.
    9. Gasmi, F. & Maingard, A. & Noumba, P. & Recuero Virto, L., 2013. "The Privatization of the Fixed-Line Telecommunications Operator in OECD, Latin America, Asia, and Africa: One Size Does Not Fit All," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 189-208.
    10. Wallsten, Scott, 2003. "Regulation and internet use in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2979, The World Bank.
    11. Michael L. Polemis & Thanasis Stengos, 2017. "Electricity Sector Performance: A Panel Threshold Analysis," The Energy Journal, , vol. 38(3), pages 141-158, May.
    12. Karamti, Chiraz, 2019. "Lopsided effects of telecom reforms on mobile markets in the enlarged EU: Evidence from dynamic quantile model," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 238-261.
    13. Castelnovo, Paolo & Del Bo, Chiara F. & Florio, Massimo, 2019. "Quality of institutions and productivity of State-Invested Enterprises: International evidence from major telecom companies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 102-117.
    14. Fink, Carsten & Mattoo, Aaditya & Rathindran, Randeep, 2003. "An assessment of telecommunications reform in developing countries," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 443-466, December.
    15. Sam Hakim & Simon Neaime, 2011. "An Analysis of the Mobile Telephone Sector in MENA: Potential for Deregulation and Privatization," Working Papers 649, Economic Research Forum, revised 12 Jan 2011.
    16. Bauer, Johannes M. & Shim, Woohyun, 2012. "Regulation and digital innovation: Theory and evidence," 23rd European Regional ITS Conference, Vienna 2012 60364, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    17. David Parker & Colin Kirkpatrick, 2005. "Privatisation in Developing Countries: A Review of the Evidence and the Policy Lessons," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 513-541.
    18. World Bank, 2004. "Investment Climate Assessment : Improving Enterprise Performance and Growth in Tanzania," World Bank Publications - Reports 14413, The World Bank Group.
    19. EZZAT Riham Ahmed, 2015. "Paving the Way for Better Telecom Performance: Evidence from the Telecommunication Sector in MENA Countries," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 14(3), pages 157-199, September.
    20. Mohamad, Noorihsan, 2014. "Telecommunications reform and efficiency performance: Do good institutions matter?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 49-65.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2983. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.