Recent economic and social reforms in various sectors, and ICT innovations have affected ways of conducting business both in the private and public sector including telecommunications. These and other changes have lead to the adoption and development of different policies and regulations to regulate the market. The changes have also put demands on the regulators, operators and other stakeholders to understand the social and financial implication of such policies and regulations on the different sectors.

The relevance of this course lies in the need for people working and intending to work in the ICT industry including telecommunications to be aware of the economic and financial impact of the decisions made both at micro and macro levels. Specifically, they need to be able to make a financial and cost-benefit analysis of policy and regulatory decisions made and the implications they have on costs, prices, returns to the firm and the society at large. Learners working and intending to work in ICT based firms and sector need to know, understand, and appreciate the link between policy and regulations as they relate to the individual corporate institutions/organizations and the telecommunication sector at large.

In light of ICT policy and regulations, the rationale for offering this course is to equip those working and intending to work in the ICT industry with basic knowledge and tools on how to analyse and interpret financial statements, how to measure the returns of an ICT investment, and how to select a socially and financially viable project based on informed decisions. Specific sections to be covered in the course do reflect this need. These include:

Financial Statement Analysis section which will assist learners to measure, review and analyse financial statements of firms with a view to assessing a firm’s return on investment, and project future performance. To the regulator the module will assist in deciding a number of policy and regulatory issues, e.g., accounting methods, costing, and pricing and price caps for ICT companies.

Cost of Capital section which will assist the learner to measure the returns of the ICT companies and other firms and hence have a basis for monitoring costing and pricing of the ICT products and deciding on the capital structure and investment levels.

Project Management and Analysis section which will help the learner to analyse financial and social viability of the projects, and develop regulations which will promote fair play to all investors (incumbent and prospective).

The first target group to take this course will be telecommunication regulators. There are a number of financial issues that telecommunication regulators need to know and that have a major impact on their normal regulatory roles. One major role is to evaluate the performance of different telecommunication operators and compare them with the rest in the industry. Such knowledge can only be gained if they understand the financials of the firm and this can be achieved by studying module 1. In order for telecommunication regulators to assess fair play in terms of what telecommunication firms earn, they also need to know cost and returns resulting from telecommunication investments. Such knowledge will be gained in module two (2). The last module assists telecommunication regulators to evaluate and select a financially and socially viable telecommunication project.

It is not the intention of this course to go into the detailed rigor as required by candidates aspiring to be financial specialists, but rather to offer tools of analysis to enable regulators and other learners to make informed decisions.

Course Structure and Context
This course is structured in three modules. Module one (1) concentrates more on Accounting Analysis, while the second (2) module covers issues relating to Cost of Capital. Module three (3) concentrates on Project Management and Analysis. In the KEWL environment the course will be covered in 18 chapters, whereby 13 chapters are content chapters and the first four chapters are introductory chapters to the course, and to module 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The last chapter summarizes the whole course. Each learning chapter will have at least two “sessions” – that is, an amount of material that you should be able to complete at one sitting. To complete this course a learner will need a minimum of 40 teaching and learning hours, equivalent to a one teaching semester. The detailed course structure is presented in table 1 below.

It is advisable that learners should not start module three (3) if they have not covered module two (2).

Each module has a number of sessions to assist the learner to understand the topic being discussed. At the end of each module, some discussion questions are presented which each learner is required to do in order to assess whether he/she has understood the module. Learners will be required to participate in the discussions. In addition to the discussion questions, the learner/student is expected to participate in the entire learning activities presented at the end of each module.

You will be expected to devote at least three hours a week for this course.Your “time on task” will be measured by your participation in class discussions and your completion of the other individual and group assignments.

The course will be updated as frequently as possible to cater to the needs of the market.

Course Learning Objectives
The overall objective of this course is to ensure learners/students have the ability to understand the implications of economic and financial information for the Telecommunication sector.
The instructors will respond to student email within 48 hours. Your email message to the instructor must include TR505 and your name in the subject line.

Course Learning Outcomes
After completing the course, the learner/student is expected to:

• Analyse and interpret financial statements, and relate financial statements to policy and regulations.
• Assess and determine Cost of Capital in a telecommunication industry.
• Review, evaluate, and select financially and socially viable projects in the ICT sector.

Note to the Learner:
The course does not prepare the learner to become a financial analyst. Rather, the learner should be enable to read, analyse and interpret financial statements and make the right and informed decisions based on reliable financial information and data.

Course Pre-requisite
A learner undertaking this course is expected to have a good working knowledge in the ICT sector, good knowledge of the regulation and policy issues affecting ICT, and a basic degree, or advanced diploma, or master's degree from a recognized and accredited university/institution. The course, however, assumes that the learner has no prior knowledge in accounting, finance or project management issues.

A learner registering for this course should make sure he/she has completed all the first semester courses. In addition, this course is closely linked to Service Pricing (TR508) . While some topics are covered in detail in this course, other issues are covered in other courses. Links and reference to other courses will be explained in the specific chapter or session.

Reference Material
Reference materials are organized based on each module. The reference materials include Books, Journals, Papers and Web based links.

Teaching Methodology
The course will take a combination of teaching and learning methods such:
Lectures - on line

• Open discussions on a hot topic
• Special Guest lecturers
• Online and take home exercises and case study discussions.
• Online and take home case studies
• Individual and group project discussions and presentations.
• Weekly Discussion boards.