A Primer on Mobile Termination Rates

A Primer on Mobile Termination Rates provides regulators, policy makers, operators, researchers and others with an overview of mobile termination rate (MTR) concepts.

"By way of background, a report published in January 2006 by a US telecommunications consulting group noted that while mobile telephone subscribers surpassed fixed line subscribers globally in 2002, mobile usage significantly lagged fixed line usage. It said that "the main reason is the high price of mobile calls, which are often caused by high mobile termination rates (MTRs, the cost per minute of terminating a call on a mobile network)" and concluded that "there is compelling evidence that mobile users in countries with low termination rates or that charge the receiving party for the call spend more time talking on their phones"."- UK Parliament, Select Committee on European Scrutiny

Information and Communications for Development

Information and Communications for Development 2006: Global Trends and Policies is a World Bank flagship publication addressing the critical role being played by information and communication technologies (ICT) in economic development.

Superstars of the Mobile Internet: Top 10 Mobile Multimedia Nations

Superstars of the Mobile Internet: Top 10 Mobile Multimedia Nations identifies the leading nations in terms of mobile multimedia usage. The report illustrates the types of indicators used to measure mobile multimedia penetration and identifies the 10 leading mobile multimedia nations in the world. The report looks at the relationship between mobile multimedia and the factors that may impact the propensity to use it.

See "Multimédia sur mobile: la France sur le podium"

Asia-Pacific Mobile Multimedia Outlook

Asia Pacific Mobile Multimedia Outlook provides a comprehensive overview of mobile data developments in the region. It covers high-speed network launches, pricing, text messaging and other factors impacting mobile Internet take-up.

See "Just the facts, please"

African Telecommunication Indicators

Seventh edition prepared for Africa TELECOM in Cairo. The growth in telephone access in Africa has been largely fuelled by mobile cellular communications. The change has been so rapid that it has caught many by surprise. From just two countries in 1999, there were 43 African countries that had more mobile than fixed-line telephone subscribers by the end of 2003, more than any other region. The wireless boom has been caused by the combination of sector liberalization—which has seen the licensing of multiple cellular operators in most African markets—and service innovation in the form of pre-paid cards. Africa’s challenge is to sustain this high mobile growth and extend it to other sectors such as the Internet. The report documents the tremendous changes that have taken place within the space of a few years since the last edition in 2001.
Mobile phones the talk of Africa as landlines lose out

World Telecommunication Development Report: Access Indicators for the Information Society

The 2003 World Telecommunication Development Report is a tool kit for measuring access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) and a synopsis of the current state of readiness worldwide for the information society. Published to coincide with the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), in Geneva, in December 2003.

Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Indicators

The fifth edition of the ITU’s Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Indicators was prepared for Asia Telecom 2002 (Hong Kong, China, 2-7 December 2002).

World Telecommunication Development Report: Reinventing Telecoms

Launched at the 3rd World Telecommunication Development Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Two years into a new century, the telecommunication sector finds itself at a crossroads. It has changed almost beyond recognition over the last twenty years. The results have been impressive, with the industry growing at an unprecedented pace, especially since the mid-1990s. At a global level, however, the acceleration in telecom growth rates was reversed in 2001. Share prices declined precipitously, and expected profits turned to losses for many of the new market entrants in the sector. Is this the signal of a new, sober environment for telecommunications or just a temporary blip? The Report attempts to answer that question by looking at where the telecommunication sector is, what it has accomplished over the last twenty years, and where it will go over the next few years. The gale of creative destruction currently blowing through the industry will bring misery to some, but opportunity to many more. Above all, for telecommunication users, who will soon form the majority of mankind, a new age is dawning in which scarcity is being replaced by plentiful and ubiquitous supply. That is telecoms reinvented!
Japanese edition shown . Stéphane Rollet designed the cover and Sophie Minges drew the picture.

African Telecommunication Indicators

Prepared for Africa TELECOM 2001, this report is an indispensable reference book of telecommunication facts and figures for the region.

Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Indicators

The fourth edition of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Indicators was launched at Asia Telecom 2000 (Hong Kong, 4-9 December 2000). This edition focuses on three themes that have dominated the telecommunications landscape in the closing years of the 20th Century: the liberalization of telecommunication markets, the emergence of wireless communications to the point where mobilephone users will soon outnumber fixed-line ones; and the rise of the Internet.

Direction of Traffic: Trading telecom minutes

The third edition of the ITU/TeleGeography Direction of Traffic collaboration focuses on the transition in international telecommunication traffic away from a bilateral regime, based on accounting rates, to a new, multilateral, trade-based regime. Specifically, the report looks at the impact that the changing telecommunication environment will have on developing countries.

Executive Summary

World Telecommunication Development Report: Mobile Cellular

The fifth edition of the World Telecommunication Development Report was prepared for Telecom'99 in Geneva. The report examines the implications of the mobile cellular revolution including technological aspects, regulatory options, relevance for developing countries and pricing. The cover was designed by Stéphane Rollet, drawing on the cartoon mobiles provided by MACH, a GSM clearing house.
The future is mobile

African Telecommunication Indicators

Prepared for Africa TELECOM 98.

World Telecommunication Development Report: Universal Access

The fourth edition of the World Telecommunication Development Report was prepared to coincide with the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Malta in March 1998. It examines progress towards universal access to communications, reasons for disparities, and policies and technological solutions designed to improve the
situation.

Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Indicators: New Telecommunications Operators

World Telecommunication Development Report: Trade in Telecommunications

The cover picture was drawn by Gl Banu Altinok, 13, of Turkey. It shows the peoples of the world coming together to communicate with a distant planet via the medium of light: a rainbow. The report is concerned with extra-territorial communications or, more precisely, telecom trade. The growing volume of communication between nations and the trade it supports, helps to build peace and interdependence between nations, reflected by the rainbow, an international symbol of peace.

Arab States Telecommunication Indicators

Prepared for the Arab States Regional Telecommunication Development Conference, the report covers telecommunications in the Arab-speaking World. The overview examines fixed-line developments, international telephone traffic trends, mobile cellular growth and the Internet. It also compares performance, looks at investment requirements and offers suggestions for the region’s operators to deal with the rapidly changing telecommunication sector.

Direction of Traffic: Trends in international telephone tariffs

International communications helps to make the world a smaller place. But our new communication-based geography has its own logic. Global investment programmes and the tariffs of foreign countries are often more important in determining who is getting closer to whom than domestic proximity or domestic call prices. For instance, in 1996 it was cheaper to call from Geneva to Honolulu than it was to call Barcelona. Similarly, for technical and economic reasons, the majority of telephone traffic between African countries is routed through third countries outside the continent and most Internet traffic between Asian cities passes via the United
States. The second edition of Direction of Traffic provides a detailed review of these and other factors re-directing international telecommunication traffic.

African Telecommunication Indicators

World Telecommunication Development Report: Information Infrastructures

The second edition of the World Telecommunication Development Report was published to coincide with TELECOM 95, the 7th World Telecommunication Event held in Geneva, October 3 - 11. The barriers which once separated the three sectors of the information industry -- telecommunications, computing and broadcasting -- are breaking down now that each sector can process and exchange information in a digital form. Technological convergence is creating a new range of multimedia products and services. The report examines the way telecommunications network operators, service providers, governments and users around the world are preparing for a multimedia future.

Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Indicators

Telecommunication Indicators for the Least Developed Countries

Direction of Traffic: International telephone traffic

Direction of Traffic presents a picture of bilateral telecommunication traffic flows. As such it represents an attempt to map the evolution of the global information economy. Hopefully, the data presented in the report will stimulate a more thorough review of traffic flows in order to measure the effects of technological change, competition, tariff changes and policy shifts, as well as the relation between telecommunication traffic and social and economic development. Cover drawing by Fei Lap Liu of Hongkong who was 9 years old at the time it was made.

World Telecommunication Development Report

Ten years on from The Missing Link, the first World Telecomunication Development Report was launched at the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina in March 2004. The picture on the cover was drawn by Chomchon Fusinpaiboon (10) of Thailand to commemorate the launching of Thailand's first communications satellite, Thaicom, on 17 December 1993. It reflects the four themes discussed in the
report: globalisation, technology, restructuring and development. Satellites circling the earth providing communications from one distant point to another are one aspect of globalisation. The growing service capabilities of satellites reflect technological change. The Thaicom satellite is operated under concession from the Thai government reflecting restructuring in the telecommunication sector to allow private participation. Finally, the Thai satellite reflects steps taken by developing countries to bridge the telecommunications development gap with developed countries.

African Telecommunication Indicators

Prepared for Third Africa International Telecommunication Exhibition and Special Session of the World Telecommunication Forum -- Africa TELECOM 94.

Asia Pacific Telecommunication Indicators

African Telecommunication Indicators