Learning to swim with sharks: Caribbean and African telecommunications regulatory experience under monopoly conditions (1993‐2003)

This paper contrasts the regulatory experience of the telecommunications industry in two regions, Africa and the Caribbean. Whilst possessing some socio‐economic similarities, they remain quite distinct in terms of size and political history. In particular the relatively more stable Caribbean political history has secured a firm basis for the democratic process and the development of institutional infrastructure supportive of good governance. Therefore, despite a monopoly telecommunications structure evident in both regions, the Caribbean has generally been more successful in forestalling anti‐competitive behaviour than in the case of African economies. In this respect a critical role has been played by competition policy supporting the view of the prominence of legislative endowments in informing regulatory governance.