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We study the link between state‐owned restructuring before privatization and privatization sales prices for the telecommunications industry. We use new data to cover 84 telecommunications privatizations, which account for nearly 80% of the sector in terms of value. We focus on streamlining policies and regulatory issues prior to privatization and find that, while most labour streamlining measures have no bearing on privatization prices, the presence of a regulatory agency prior to privatization does impact on prices, especially if such an agency was set up well before the sale took place.