In this paper, we examine the impact of telecommunications reform in Africa on both sectoral performance and economic growth. Besides unilateral liberalization measures, we account for WTO commitments at the multilateral level fostering the credibility of reforms. However, we find that multilateral commitments often do not seem to translate into actual reform. Actual liberalization leading to an increase in the number of operators improves the availability of telecommunications services, but in itself is no guarantee for price reductions. Regulatory quality plays a major role in bringing down prices as well as in improving access to telecommunication services. Enhancing the number of subscribers to mobile telephony services in Africa by 1 per cent translates into a 1.4 per cent increase in economic growth.