The much discussed “intelligent network" is beginning to materialize. The public switched telecommunication network (PSTN) is being reconfigured to do more than convey voice messages from one point to another. Increasingly, network resources are dynamically reallocated for different kinds of uses. No longer is the network limited to point-to-point communi-cation. Conference calls connect multiple users. Automatic diallers combined with taped human or voice-synthesized messages “broadcast” to many points. Mass announcement services allow simultaneous access to identical messages by multiple users. In the process, the network collects immense quantities of transaction-generated information (TGI) for control func-tions and for further processing and use. The intelligent network will not appear full blown, replacing the previous “dumb'network in one day. It is being assembled piece by piece in terms of hardware, software and institutional structure. Common Channel Signaling System 7 (SS7) protocols and CLASS (Custom Local Area Signaling Service) services are important building blocks of the inchoate intelligent network. Indeed, the CLASS services package comprising Caller ID, Call Trace, Call Block, Return Call, Select Forward, Priority Call and Repeat Call (or variations of these terms), is the first major set of consumer services based on SS7 technology (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, 1990: 23). Policies governing CLASS services, particularly Caller ID, now being formulated amid some controversy in regulatory commissions and courts throughout the developed market economies constitute important building blocks of the institutional aspect of the intelligent network.