1.5 Who Authorizes Telecommunications Services?

Today, authorizations are usually issued and administered by telecommunication or ICT regulatory authorities. However, until recently, Ministers or Ministries responsible for the ICT sector played a much more prominent role in licensing. They continue to do so in quite a few countries. However, the trend is clearly toward separation of licensing from the political process. ICT authorization responsibilities are increasingly carried out by independent professional regulators, who are expected to use objective criteria and transparent processes for the authorization of ICT services.

As part of the ITU’s 2007 regulatory survey, information was gathered on the allocation of authorization responsibility in 140 countries. In over three-quarters of those countries (110), it was reported that the national telecommunications regulatory authority (NRA) was responsible in whole or in part for licensing. In 25 countries, the NRA shared authorization responsibility with the Ministry. This occurs, for example, in countries like St. Lucia, where the NRA reviews applications and advises the Minister, who then issues authorizations. Another example is Canada where the few authorization functions are split between the NRA (international authorizations) and the Minister (radio spectrum authorizations).

According to the 2007 ITU survey, the Ministry alone was responsible for authorization in 23 countries of the 140 countries. A total of 31 other agencies from various countries also had responsibility, in whole or in part, for issuing authorizations. These entities included the President (Suriname), the Congress (Costa Rica) and multi-sector authorization authorities (Seychelles).