Description:
<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>This paper aims to examine the influence of private corporations in the tripartite structure of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU): Telecommunications Standardization, Radiocommunication, and Telecommunications Development.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>This research employs institutional ethnography in conjunction with the case study.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>The paper finds that, in the standardization sector, power has been effectively transferred from nation states to the private corporate sector since the approval process now enables standards to be approved by members of the study group that developed them, which is essentially the private sector. In the radiocommunication sector, the private sector continues to conduct much of the requisite technical work, but national governments are ultimately the decision makers and, further, it is difficult to distinguish between treaty and non‐treaty work. In the development sector, the ITU seeks to create an enabling environment for private investment in developing countries and actively seeks to build private sector partnerships. In the long run the ITU may be unable to satisfy either its narrow corporate constituency or the vast majority of its developing country members.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>As the United Nations agency which coordinates satellite spacing and allocates access to the electromagnetic spectrum on an international basis, the ITU is the world's most prominent international telecommunications institution, so its structural modifications and membership changes are of great significance in a world increasingly dependent on a global grid of wired and wireless telecommunications networks. This paper sheds light on these.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec>