BEIRUT: Chairman of the Tele­communications Regulatory Au­thority (TRA) Kamal Shehadi urged on Monday the new cabnet expected to be formed soon in Lebanon, to embark on the full liberalization of Leba­non’s telecom sector, renewing his pledges to work for the privatization of the cellular networks. “What is needed, following the appointment of a new government, is for the minister to propose and the council of ministers to adopt a clear policy regarding the allocation of shares between the strategic investor and the Lebanese public, revenue sharing, the timing of privatization and other related issues,” he said. 

Shehadi added that the TRA is committed to the licensing and privatization of mobile in a manner that unequivocally establishes the fundamental structure of a competitive market and which allows the expected new competitor, Liban Telecom, to compete on a level playing field. 

“To this end, TRA has planned to assign the spectrum necessary for a third operator and has defined the regulatory framework that favors competition, including the significant market power regulation, the national numbering plan and number portability and infrastructure-sharing,” he said. 

Shehadi said that the success of liberalizing the broadband depends in large part on the government’s policy commitments to stimulate public demand for broadband through e-education, e-health and e-government. “It is also very important to remove any limitations on the reasonable use of technology, such as supporting the authorization of mobility for broadband services providers,” he added. 

His remarks came during the opening of the 9th GSR- Global Symposium for Regulators and 2nd GILF- Global industry Leaders forum conference held at Habtoor Grand Hotel Convention Center in Beirut. 

The conference aims at gathering 600 telecommunications regulators, policymakers and service providers from more than 97 countries to explore the challenges facing the telecommunication industry today. The event’s objectives are to devise innovative solutions and create new opportunities for the growth and spread of ICT as well. 

Shehadi stressed on the im­portance of considering not only the challenge posed by the world financial and economic crises but also the opportunity and the promise of better regulation. 

His views were echoed by Sami al-Basheer al-Morshid, director of Telecommunication Development Bureau (TDB), who said that ICT regulators and policymakers need to carry out a delicate balancing act between a hands-on or hands-off approach to regulation. 

“They need to take into account the ultimate interests of citizens, and carefully introduce new regulations, so to take into account the interests of all parties involved, but also to ensure proper and sustainable investment,” he said. “Effective regulation can ensure that investment flows continue to drive ICT growth.” 

Morshid said that markets for ICTs in developing countries tend to remain attractive despite the global downturn. “Some 65 percent of countries worldwide have opened fixed basic services to some form of competition and some 64 percent of countries worldwide have at least partially privatized their incumbent operators,” he said. 

He added that mobile penetration globally is estimated to reach 67 percent in 2009 or 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions. “It is estimated that more than one quarter of the world’s population is using internet in 2009.” 

Some statistics were also given by Isabelle Moro, head of the external affairs of the GSM association, who said that the spending in the ICT industry is expected to reach $80 billion in the next five years which include $25 billion allocated to broadband alone. “This will contribute to 3 or 4 percent of the global GDP and create 25 million job opportunities while providing access to internet for 2.4 billion people,” she said. 

According to the Information Economy Report 2009, released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), ICT goods are among those products that have been the most affected by the recession while IT and ICT related services appear to be more resilient. 

It said the number of fixed telecommunications subscriptions in the world was around 1.2 billion at the end of 2008 and the number of mobile subscriptions reached 4 billion. Moreover, there were an estimated 1.4 billion Internet users globally and an estimated 400 million fixed-broadband subscribers. 

The report stated as well that the global market for the “offshoring” of IT and ICT-enabled services was estimated to be worth around $90 billion in 2008, of which IT services accounted for 60 percent. 

It added that the penetration level in developing countries is now eight times higher than what it was at the turn of the century. The least-developed countries raised their mobile penetration from two per 100 inhabitants in 2003 to 20, in 2008. 

One of the speakers at the conference was Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), who said that ICTs play a pivotal role in helping us emerge from the financial crisis and in fueling economic recovery. He added that ICTs have a more important role than any other sector in helping to address climate change. “ICTs can help solve the climate crisis by reducing waste, by cutting business travel, by making industry more efficient and by helping us monitor environmental change through satellite-based remote sensing systems,” he said.