The availability of undersea cables around Africa has been transformed by a recent surge of investment, ending the monopoly in West Africa and an absence in East Africa. Private investors alone and with governments have funded the laying of cables. Consequently, previous calls for regulated...

In January 2012 the Westminster government offered to devolve to the Scottish Parliament the powers necessary to conduct a referendum on the independence of Scotland, with the possibility of repealing the Act of Union of 1707. This could return Great Britain to a Union of the Crowns, with...

Greece had, largely as a result of clientele policies, delayed its privatization of the state-owned telecommunications operator, the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) and the liberalization of markets. For over a decade up to 2004 Siemens paid bribes to managers of OTE, to senior...

In December 2011, prosecutors in the United States of America announced the settlement of cases against Magyar Telekom and Deutsche Telekom in respect of bribery of officials in two countries in the Balkans. In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) they had obtained a delay in a...

Authorities in the U.S. have stepped up prosecutions for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), including in the telecommunications sector. Corporations and individuals have been fined and a few individuals given custodial sentences. These have involved corruption in the...

Authorities in the USA have been increasingly active in enforcing the provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) on firms engaged in paying bribes in cash or in kind. This paper reviews a series of investigations and settlements of cases in the telecommunications sector, which...

Benin is a country of some 8.7 million people, having grown rapidly from only four million in 1985. It had a GDP per capita of only USD 1,119 in 2006, less than half the African average of USD 2,844. Mobile telephony was the only infrastructure in which the country scored well. The number of...

Liberia endured military warlords, dictatorships and civil war, before entering a period of post-conflict transition and successful elections. It continues to have significant problems with corruption. Despite these problems, mobile network operators have been able to develop their networks and...

Telecommunications in Bangladesh suffers from endemic and severe corruption, with no indications that actions are being taken to bring it under control. Procurement by the government, for the state-owned incumbent operator and for the operator of the undersea cable, has been subject to...