Art. 5 of the Investment Proclamation No. 59/1994 states that all sectors are open to any investors, with the exception of domestic retail, domestic wholesale, import, and commission agency companies, which are excluded unless there is a bilateral agreement of reciprocity. Yet, it is reported that in practice, this law has been suspended, and the ruling Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) determines the sectors in which private investment is accepted and defines the terms under which it is permitted. As a result, investment is de facto prohibited in most sectors of the economy (with the exception of mining), including the telecom sector. It has also been reported that the majority of large enterprises are either wholly or partially owned by the government or the PFDJ.

Arts. 2-4 of Proclamation No. 134 of 2003 established the Eritrea Telecommunication Services Corporation (Eritel), which is a state-owned company and remains the only telecom company in the country. Proclamation No. 172 of 2012 converted this entity into a share company, making its shares available for investors, but there is no public information on the share of private ownership.

It is reported that Eritrea does not mandate functional or accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market.

Eritrea has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

Eritrea has a telecommunications authority: The Communication Department. However, it is reported that the decision making process of this entity is not fully independent from the government.

Eritrea has not joined any trade or regional agreements with binding commitments to cross-border data flows.

Eritrea does not have a comprehensive regime of data protection in place.

A basic legal framework on intermediary liability for copyright infringement is absent in Eritrea's law and jurisprudence.

A basic legal framework on intermediary liability beyond copyright infringement is absent in Eritrea's law and jurisprudence.

It is reported that Eritrea imposes an identity requirement for SIM registration. Anyone wanting to purchase a SIM card has to provide their national ID card or a passport in case of foreigners to activate a new prepaid SIM card.

It is reported that the authorities regularly block access to social media platforms and shutter internet cafés.

The indicator "6.2.4 - Government Internet shut down in practice" of the V-Dem Dataset, which measures whether the government has the technical capacity to actively make internet service cease, thus interrupting domestic access to the internet or whether the government has decided to do so, has a score of 1 in Eritrea for the year 2023. This corresponds to "The government shut down domestic access to the Internet numerous times this year."

Eritrea is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).