Can competition-enhancing regulation bridge the quality divide in Internet provision?

There is a growing divide in Internet quality of service (QoS) between developed and developing countries. With a panel data of 160 countries for the years 2008-2016, we examined whether the adoption of more pro-competition regulation can narrow this quality divide. Internet quality of service, measured as average connection speed, increased by three times greater in developed compared to developing countries during the period studied. We found that a unit increase in the pro-competition score increased the average connection speed in developed but not in developing countries. This finding suggests that simply adopting more pro-competition rules will not narrow the quality divide between developed and developing countries. This further suggests that bright line rules in the form of minimum quality standards may be a more effective policy for improving Internet QoS in developing countries.