The ICT past was populated by Ministries of Post, Telegraph and Telecommunications (MPTTs), which set the policies; determined the technical standards; designed and certified equipment; controlled the radio spectrum; allocated numbers; managed assets; made investment decisions; set prices; operated businesses; granted privileges; and regulated these largely state-owned communications administrations.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the communications landscape in some countries started to change in large part due to changing technological development and business opportunities interacting with each other. In this period, there were also institutional developments. Telegraph lost its importance, Post and Telecommunications were structurally separated and frequently became corporations. Often, the telecommunications operator was partially or wholly transferred to the private sector. Most significantly, the telecommunications sectors were liberalized as new entrants were licensed in mobile, fixed, and Internet markets. Postal services have also been liberalized, but this has usually been after telecommunications. By opening markets, the burden of investment was shared among multiple operators. The risks of misguided decisions by a single operator, with possibly very damaging outcomes, were mitigated.
Series of clusters of innovation were stimulated by liberalization. The Internet and other platforms have dramatically expanded the global market for electronic communications and applications so that the prefix “e” for “electronic” is now extremely commonplace in all jurisdictions. During this process the traditional telecommunications sector has been transformed in a radical manner to ICTs, which has become both more significant as an economic sector, as well as a major contributor to the competitiveness of firms, cities, regions, and countries. Major institutional developments accompanied this transformation. Sector-specific, independent institutions were established to perform regulatory functions in the context of new ICT policy frameworks. Regulations continue to be amended and updated in response to market and technological changes. In some countries, regulation in some markets has changed from sector-specific status as ex post regulation has replaced ex ante. Increasing numbers of countries have followed this path of change so that now the old MPTT model is a rarity.