Course Description

This course provides a panorama review to the telecommunications sector from policy, business and technology perspectives. It explores the driving forces behind the radical change in the telecommunications policy and the significant impact of this regulatory change on business operation. Such key issues as universal service, digital convergence, network interconnection, the WTO, spectrum auction, regulatory environment of mobile multi-media services, VoIP and international settlement will be highlighted explicitly. It will also address the increasing importance of telecommunications in the business innovation, such as value co-creation and reverse economy. At the end of the semester, it will provide a general review of Uganda and East Africa’s telecommunications market benchmarked against the rest of the developing and developed world.

This will study all generic issues about Telecommunication systems, their management and standardization as well as their effects on society. In all study components, discussions will be held on four regions:

  • Uganda,
  • East Africa,
  • Africa and the Developing world,
  • The developed world & International

AIMS:

  1. To learn the economics, function, organizational structure and procedures involved in the operation and management of the telecommunications industry
  2. To develop alertness to the business dynamics in the media industry and understand the implications of media industry news events to media management
  3. To develop problem-solving and presentation skills required in media management careers
  4. To cultivate leadership and interpersonal communication skills required in media management careers

Detailed Course Content:

Critical components will include:

  • Structure of The telecommunications & ICT Indusry
  • International standardization, Regulation and development.
  • Regulation in Uganda and other developing countries and its effects / contribution to development.
  • Telecommunications Law and Policy
  • Human rights and gender issues for technology,
  • Rural telecommunications and universal access.

The outline below may be followed but not necessarily chronologically:

  • Telecommunications and Telecommunications Policy: The Introduction
  • Basic Principle of Telecommunications
  • Digitization and Digital Convergence: Where is the Border between Telecom, Broadcasting and Computing?
  • Wireless Communications and Spectrum Regulation: Is 3G License too Expensive?
  • Telecommunications Network: What dose the Telephone Network Look Like in africa?
  • Next Generation Networks: Portable Internet?
  • Case Study: Local Network Competition in East Africa
  • Case Exercise: Negotiation over Network Interconnection
  • Business and Socioeconomic Implications of Telecommunications
  • Arguments over natural monopoly
  • Necessity and Feasibility of Telecommunications Deregulation.
  • Organizational Restructuring of Telecommunications: From Monopoly to Competition, and to the Bubble and Its burst
  • Regulation over network interconnection
  • The privatization of telecommunications
  • VoIP and International Settlement: Implications for Developing Countries
  • Foreign Direct Investment of Telecommunications and WTO’s Basic
  • Telecommunications Agreement:
  • Regulatory Environment of Mobile Multimedia Services: Implications of “Bus Uncle”
  • The Support Economy and Telecommunications Transformation: Why Blog is so Popular?
  • Uganda’s Telecommunication Market: A Review
  • East Africa’s Telecommunications market: A Review

Teaching and Learning Pattern

The teaching of students will be conducted through lectures, tutorials, short classroom exercises, case studies, group discussions among the students and projects aimed at solving real life problems. The lecture material will be availed to the students in advance to enable them have prior reading. Solving real life problems in each theme or a number of topics will enhance the students’ understanding of the problem based learning techniques.

Assessment method

Assessment will be done through coursework which will include assignments, class room and take home tests, project work and presentations and a written examination. Course work will carry a total of 40% and written examination carries 60%. Coursework marks will be divided into; Assignments 5%, Tests 10% and Practical/project Work 25%.

Course text

Reading: Houston H. Carr and Charles A. Snyder (2003) The Management of Telecommunications, McGraw-Hill Irwin: Boston, Chapter 1

References:

  1. World Bank (2001) “Telecommunications Regulation Handbook” at http://www.infodev.org/content/library/detail/842,
  2. Geroski, Barriers to Entry and Strategic Competition, 1990
  3. Richard A. Gershon (2001), Telecommunications Management: Industry Structures and Planning Strategies, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  4. Black, S.K. (2002) Telecommunications Law in the Internet Age, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers: San Francisco,
  5. Fransman, Martin,” Telecoms in the Internet Age”: from boom to bust to–? Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2002;

Attachments

Attachment Name Attachment Type

MTE 7205- Telecom Regulation, Management and Policy

DOC PDF PS