Poor connectivity is conventionally blamed on difficult geography and low income. But economic isolation could also result from policy choices in key ‘linking’ services such as air transportation and telecommunications. A new database on applied services trade policies reveals that many countries restrict trade in the very services that connect them with the rest of the world. We present evidence that restrictive policies lead to more concentrated market structures and limited access to services, even after taking into account the influence of geography and income. Moving from an intermediate level of restrictiveness to an open regime could lead to a 20 percentage point increase in cellular teledensity in the telecommunications sector and to a 25 per cent increase in flight connections per airline in the aviation sector, respectively.