Key Pathways to High-Speed Internet in the Middle East and North Africa : Spurring Competition and Building New Networks
Most countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are falling behind in their quest to develop high-speed Internet for rapid socioeconomic development. Despite young adults’ rising use of social networking tools and solid progress in...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank Group, Washington, DC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/07/24441423/key-pathways-high-speed-internet-middle-east-north-africa-spurring-competition-building-new-networks http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22303 |
| Summary: | Most countries of the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) region are falling behind in their quest
to develop high-speed Internet for rapid socioeconomic
development. Despite young adults’ rising use of social
networking tools and solid progress in a few countries, most
of the region’s Internet remains hobbled by monopolized,
inadequate infrastructure; weak investment incentives; and
high costs. High-speed (broadband) Internet can drive
economic and social transformations. To realize that
potential, a recent World Bank study finds that MENA
countries must pursue a three-pronged approach: reduce costs
by fully liberalizing access to the existing Internet
infrastructure; support the resulting competition with
independent national regulators working within a harmonized
regional framework of regulation; and promote investments in
new fiber-optic networks and other ultrafast broadband
infrastructure (including Long-Term Evolution or LTE)
alongside existing technologies. With these measures, plus
aggressive strategies for sharing public works
infrastructure and subsidies for rural access, MENA can
leapfrog its current information and communication bottlenecks. |
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