Benin ICT Sector Performance Review 2009/2010 Analysis of the Perception of the Telecoms Regulatory Environment in Benin Control of the regulatory environment is an important factor in the development of the telecommunication and ICT sectors and for a better determination of the level of investment throughout the country. The authorities of a developing country such as Benin, where the activities of telecommunication and ICT are in full development, and of which the regulation systems of telecommunication and certain other ICT activities, notably the Internet, have been under construction for three years, need to know the option of the main role players in this process. It is, thus, important to evaluate the telecommunication and ICT regulatory environment in Benin from the perceptions of the key role players. The objective of this section is, thus, to evaluate the telecommunication regulatory environment (TRE) in Benin. This evaluation is based on the methodology developed for this purpose by Rohan Samarajiva and adopted by RIA. The current evaluation of the telecommunication regulatory environment (TRE) covers the period from June 2007 to August 2009 for the fixed-line, mobile and Internet telecommunication sectors. A TRE questionnaire was submitted to a sample of 50 people with a total return of 39 questionnaires. The respondents are grouped into the following three categories: • Category 1: stakeholders directly affected by the regulation of the telecommunication sector, such as operators, professional associations linked to the sector, equipment providers and resellers. Sixteen individuals in this category took part in this survey. • Category 2: stakeholders who analyse the sector with a larger interest, such as financial institutions, telecommunication consultants and law firms. Nine people from this category participated in the survey. • Category 3: stakeholders who are interested in the improvement of the sector to help the public such as universities, research organisms, journalists, telecommunication user groups, civil societies, former member of regulatory organs and other governmental organisms and donors. Fourteen individuals belonging to this category responded to the questionnaire. Each respondent gave a score on the basis of his knowledge of the sector and essential events that took place in the sector over the period from June 2007 to August 2009. The respondents were requested to give their degree of satisfaction on the quality of the regulatory environment for each aspect. The evaluation grill consists of five points: (1) very unsatisfied, (2) unsatisfied, (3) rather satisfied, (4) satisfied and (5) very satisfied. During the use of the results (available in the TRE notes), the original scale was transposed to another from (-2) to (2), maintaining the same intervals. The questions are based on the evaluation of seven aspects: • market entry conditions ; • allocation of rare resources ; • interconnection management ; • regulation of anti-competitive practices ; • respect of the universal service obligation ; • price regulation ; and • service quality Graph 1 presents an overall view of the results of the telecommunication and regulatory environment (TRE) evaluation in Benin. 17