Redefining Multilateral Governance. There is a multilateral concomitant to this domestic shift in the balance of influence. That is, the institutionalization of telecommunications as a part of the WTO's ongoing work programs has very significant implications for global governance. Since the late 1980s---and especially since the 1988 World Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference---the ITU has moved quite strongly to change its spots. Gone are the days when the Place des Nations complex served as the exclusive clubhouse of national monopolies that designed international agreements to buttress their market power and preclude competition. Many of the key instruments of the international telecommunications regime---e.g. the accounting and settlements system, the technical standardization process, the regulations on private leased circuits and networks, and so on---have been changed to allow governments and firms to develop competitive market arrangements, so much so that one could argue that the regime has undergone a fundamental transformation over the past decade.[1] Moreover, many of the ITU's institutional procedures have been adjusted to actively solicit the participation of a wide variety of the private firms in its work and decision-making. The entry of the GATT, and now the WTO, into the global mix---which has been called "the ultimate bypass"---was an important part of this story, because it essentially removed the ITU's 130-year old monopoly on multilateral rule-making, and it forced ITU members to adapt their agreements in anticipation of a contested policy market. The GBT deal quite obviously deepens these trends. As the Council on Services' work program on telecommunications takes off and the DSB begins to involve itself in any bilateral conflicts, much of the most interesting and important action in multilateral telecommunications policy making will shift down the street from Place des Nations to the WTO’s location at Place Xxxxxx-Xxxxxx. The ITU will continue to play important roles on many key issues---e.g. technical standardization, frequency spectrum management, technical assistance to developing countries, information dissemination and so on---but the economic aspects of telecommunications will increasingly shift to the WTO. . This is significant because none of the ITU's instruments actively promotes competition and market entry; they simply allow it, if members wish to go this route. Moreover, the growing influence of the could even make it easier for other internat...
