Kuwait’s National Assembly has passed a draft law to establish an independent telecoms commission to oversee the country’s communications sector, the Kuwait Times has reported. According to the article, Kuwait is the last country in the Gulf region to establish such a regulatory body, as the draft law has reportedly been the subject of much deliberation by the government and the previous assemblies for the past decade. The new commission will regulate the mobile, landline and broadband sectors, although the exact scope of supervisory powers it will be given remains unclear.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, state regulator and sole fixed line telephony operator the Ministry of Communications (MoC) is currently responsible for overseeing Kuwait’s telecoms sector. Sporadic amendments to the country’s telecoms legislation have been applied at irregular intervals in recent years, but generally speaking the MoC is reluctant to alter its legislative focus unless circumstances force its hand. In November 2010 the MoC announced that it intended to establish an independent telecoms regulator as part of its ongoing intention to privatise the country’s fixed line telephony market. MoC claimed that no further internet service provider (ISP) licences would be issued in the interim period.