Abstract. We present a market-based approach to call routing in telecommunications networks. A system architecture is described that allows self-interested agents, representing various network resources, potentially owned by different real world enterprises, to co-ordinate their resource allocation decisions without assuming a priori co-operation. It is argued that such an architecture has the potential to provide a distributed, robust and efficient means of traffic management. In particular, our architecture uses an adaptive pricing and inventory setting strategy, based on real bidding, to reduce call blocking in a simulated telecommunications network.