Abstract
As of June 2023, the percentage of Tanzanians who had access to a telephone was more than one hundred per cent. However, this has not always been so. For example, in 1997, there was a telephone density of 0.32 per cent. This average was much lower than those of neighbouring Kenya (0.92), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) (3.4), Asia (3.86), and Europe (35.36). Fast forward a little over twenty years and practically everyone in Tanzania now has access to a telephone. This chapter, among other things, argues that establishing favourable legislative and regulatory frameworks that encourage the competitive provision of telecommunication services has directly contributed to these developments. As a result, the chapter's primary argument is that the implementation of these frameworks has directly contributed to increased access to telecommunications services, which in turn has contributed to the achievement of the SDGs.
TopIntroduction
In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a “universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity” (UNDP, 2023). Adopted by the UN General Assembly on 25th September 2015, the SDGs, also known as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is “a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity” that seeks to “strengthen universal peace in larger freedom” (UNGA, 2015, p.1) The SDGs contain seventeen interconnected goals whose successful implementation is aimed at seeing a better and developed world by 2030. Overly ambitious, as observed by the adopting heads of state, the SDGs nevertheless convey a bold attempt to create a developed equal, just, fair world.
Goal number nine of SDGs focuses on building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation (United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs, 2023). Target 9(c) of the goal seeks to see a significant “increase in access to information and communications technology” and “universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020” (United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs, 2023, p.1). The emphasis on information and communications technology in goal nine was not an accident. It was already acknowledged by the heads of states that ICT “has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies” (UNGA, 2015, p. 5).
The United Republic of Tanzania, like other United Nations members, participated in the development of the SDGs in 2015. As a result, it is dedicated to putting them into action and ensuring that Tanzania is free of poverty by 2023. The country’s dedication to implementing the SDGs may be seen in the enactment of various laws, policies, and plans of action. The-relevancy of this chapter is the enactment of various laws and regulations aimed at increasing access to information and communication technologies and related services. Tanzania has enacted several laws to regulate the sector, which promote, among other things, fair competition. The central thesis of this chapter is that the introduction of these laws that foster competition in the sector has directly contributed to increased access to telecommunications services, consequently contributing to the achievement of SDGs.
At this point, it becomes important to answer one crucial question in this chapter: what is competition? Competition is a simple but difficult concept to grasp. It is defined as a “process by which two or more parties engage in a contest/rivalry” (Temu, 2021, p. 61). On a technical level, the term has become intricate and a subject of extensive academic devotion (Ezrachi, 2021; Hunt & Morgan, 1995; McNulty, 1968; Stigler, 1972; Vickers, 1995). Generally, competition has been defined as “rivalry in selling goods, in which each selling unit normally seeks maximum net revenue, under conditions such that the price or prices each seller can charge are effectively limited by the free option of the buyer to buy from a rival seller or sellers of what we think of as “the same” product, necessitating an effort by each seller to equal or exceed the attractiveness of the others’ offerings to a sufficient number of sellers to accomplish the end in view”(Clark, 1925, p. 243).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Abuse of Dominance: deliberate practices of a dominant firm in a market that exploit or misuse its market power to the detriment of competition, consumers, and other market participants. Acts of abuse of dominance seek to drive competitors out of the market and may include practices such as price discrimination, margin squeezing, cross subsidization, predatory prices, exploitative prices and tying and bundling, among others.
Sustainable Development: a development concept that tries to achieve balanced economic development by ensuring that current generations’ social and economic needs are addressed without jeopardizing those of the future generations. Sustainable development includes, among other things, elements such as responsible business conduct, economic inclusiveness, resource efficiency, strategic investment in technology, quality and improved social services, and environmental conservation.
Telecommunications: a term used to describe the transmission of information over long distances using various methods. In the context of this study, telecommunications include voice and data transmission over various information and communications technology channels.
Telecommunication Law: a set of rules and regulations that govern the provision of telecommunications. This would include, among other aspects, licensing, frequency spectrum, access, competition, quality of service, and consumer protection.
Access to Telecommunications: the availability and affordability of communication services that allow individuals and other entities to communicate with one another. On a broader scale, access would imply the availability of communication infrastructure, the affordability of communications services, and a supportive legislative framework. services to allow individuals and other entities to communicate with each other.
Competition Law: set of rules and regulations that promote fair competition and prevent anticompetitive practices in the marketplace. Key aspects of competition law include regulation of anticompetition practices, abuse of dominance and mergers and acquisitions.
Restrictive Trade Practices: practices by firms at the marketplace which seeks to restrict or distort competition. Price fixing, market allocation, collusive tendering, exclusive dealing, refusal to deal and misleading advertisements are some of restrictive trade practices.
Mergers and Acquisitions: types of corporate reorganization in which two or more entities merge to form one entity. Mergers occur when two or more entities agree to combine their assets and liabilities in order to form a new entity. Acquisitions, on the other hand, entail one entity acquiring the assets and liabilities of another.