This report responds to the need of tackling the regulatory barriers preventing operators from extending coverage of mobile broadband networks to rural areas in emerging markets. To do so, it provides a coherent set of recommendations to help regulators create an investment-friendly regulatory framework that maximises the potential of market forces to drive rural coverage. Recognising the varying degree of maturity of the regulation in emerging regions, the report covers a number of regulatory areas with the aim of serving as a guideline for regulators to identity the shortcomings of their regulatory framework as compared to international best practices.
The areas covered in the report are: regulatory principles, spectrum policy, taxation policy, roll-out regulation at the local level, and infrastructure sharing. In the last chapter, the report gives an overview of the main challenges and considerations for the most common direct interventions used by regulators to drive coverage beyond the market limits: Universal service Funds, Single Wholesale Networks, coverage obligations, and subsidies.