The issue of having a regional regulatory body was raised again by Viviane Redding, Information Society Commissioner at the EU. Having 25 national authorities going back and forth with the EU as not made it easy for many operators to do business in Europe. She said that such a body could cut the red tape for EU. Read more
Interestingly, back in 1998, I was also involved in a project with the South Pacific Forum to look into the creation of a regional regulatory body. I conducted this project together with a Samoan consultancy. From what I understand, many of the proposals are still under consideration. For the Pacific Islands, one of the main issues is lack of resources. Many of the countries are too small a market to afford a national regulatory body and there are just too many international meetings for regulators to keep up with.