"Regulating?" Protecting customers or protecting the service provider?

I wanted to highlight, also included in the WSUP Paper, an adapted version of the World Bank's 'Accountability Triangle' (about 2002 from memory) which we developed in an earlier regulatory investigation (Franceys & Gerlach, 2008). This is designed to show the key role of the regulatory inputs - coming between the government (and its policy and law-making concerns) and the service provider.

At some level, the key key role of the regulator being to ensure the delivery of an adequate revenue flow to the service provider (whilst incentivising an acceptable level of efficiency in service provision) and therefore 'protecting' customer/consumers by enabling a reasonable service - as opposed to restricting any and all tariff increases in order to meet the needs of politicians and consumer lobbyists. Citizen consumers can only access the benefits of improved service provision (on the understanding that such provision has been targeted at the poorest with the greatest need, as well as those whose revenue will support the business) when the service provider is allowed sufficient revenue to deliver it!