How many major telecommunication companies are state-owned, and in which economies do they operate? Knowing the answer to such questions can be critical for network operators to make informed decisions on routing, interconnection and general network operations, particularly when they are operating in another economy or when a peer company is owned by a foreign government. Such information can also help operators understand telecom business dynamics in foreign economies they are not familiar with. In a recent study to shed light on different state-owned Internet providers around the world, we at Northwestern University, Northeastern University, the University of California, San Diego and Georgia Institute of Technology found that state ownership of Internet providers is a widespread phenomenon. And that governments have different approaches to engage in telecommunications markets, for example, as access providers (ANTEL in Uruguay), or by creating domestic backbones (ARSAT in Argentina), or investing in international connectivity (BSCCL in Bangladesh). Overall, we identified 989 state-owned Autonomous Systems (ASes) (and 193 foreign subsidiaries) … continue reading the blog post …
Another invited post for the APNIC blog.