Regulation is a pervasive feature of the telecommunications services industry today. Government-appointed regulators and judicial or quasi-judicial bodies oversee it in countries at all stages of economic development. Its primary purpose is to encourage, nourish and maintain competition in national and international telecommunications services markets. It is, therefore, a fundamental feature of the legal and commercial landscape within which network owners and service providers operate. The modern development of regulation may be traced to the liberalisation of the industry from national monopolies from the 1980s onwards.
