Factoring in the regulator

Creating and empowering an independent, strong, fair, transparent, and accountable regulatory and supervisory institution is, by experience of virtually all countries with a thriving telecommunications sector, indispensable for the development of a viable sector. To assess the need for a revived regulator in the context of enabling the telecom sector to be a, or even, the spearhead of economic development, Executive had a virtual sit-down with Kamal Shehadi. Shehadi is not only an expert on regional telecom operations; he was the chairman of Lebanon’s telecom regulatory institution in the first years after its formation.  By Executive’s reckoning, the once-promising national telecom regulator has fallen into deep dormancy. How do you, as its first chairman, today evaluate the role of Lebanon’s telecommunications regulatory authority, the TRA? Do you agree that the entire telecommunications and ICT sector has been stagnant or in a state of arrested development for too many years, and