International Telecommunication Union Union internationale des télécommunications Unión Internacional de Telecomunicaciones Международный союз электросвязи الاتحاد الدولي للاتصالات 国际电信联盟
Flag of the ITU
Org type	UN agency
Acronyms	ITU UIT
Head	Hamadoun Touré
Status	Active
Established	17 May 1865
Headquarters	Geneva, Switzerland
Website	http://www.itu.int/

Monument in Bern, Switzerland. The text reads: "Union Télégraphique Internationale fondée à Paris en 1865 sur l'initiative du gouvernement français. Érigé par décision de l'Union Télégraphique prise à la conférence internationale de Lisbonne en 1908." (In English: "International Telegraph Union founded at Paris in 1865 on the initiative of the French government. [This monument] erected by a decision of the Telegraph Union made at the international conference at Lisbon in 1908.")

The International Telecommunication Union, originally founded as the International Telegraph Union, (French : "Union Internationale des Télécommunications") is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies.^[1] The ITU coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and assists in the development and coordination of worldwide technical standards.

ITU also organizes worldwide and regional exhibitions and forums, such as ITU TELECOM WORLD, bringing together representatives of government and the telecommunications and ICT industry to exchange ideas, knowledge and technology.

The ITU is active in areas including broadband Internet, latest-generation wireless technologies, aeronautical and maritime navigation, radio astronomy, satellite-based meteorology, convergence in fixed-mobile phone, Internet access, data, voice, TV broadcasting, and next-generation networks.

ITU, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of the United Nations Development Group.^[2] Its membership includes 193 Member States and around 700 Sector Members and Associates.

ITU sectors [edit]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2012)

The ITU comprises three sectors, each managing a different aspect of the matters handled by the Union, as well as ITU Telecom:

Radiocommunication (ITU-R)

Managing the international radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbit resources is at the heart of the work of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R).

Standardization (ITU-T)

ITU's standards-making efforts are its best-known — and oldest — activity; known prior to 1992 as the International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee or CCITT (from its French name "Comité consultatif international téléphonique et télégraphique")

Development (ITU-D)

Established to help spread equitable, sustainable and affordable access to information and communication technologies (ICT).

ITU TELECOM

ITU Telecom organizes major events for the world's ICT community. ITU Telecom World 2011^[3] is ITU Telecom's 40th Anniversary with the first event in 1971.

A permanent General Secretariat, headed by the Secretary General, manages the day-to-day work of the Union and its sectors.

Legal framework of ITU [edit]

The basic texts of the ITU^[4] are adopted by the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.^[5] In addition to the Constitution and Convention, the consolidated basic texts include the Optional Protocol on the settlement of disputes, the Decisions, Resolutions and Recommendations in force, as well as the General Rules of Conferences, Assemblies and Meetings of the Union.^{[citation needed]}

Leadership [edit]

The ITU is headed by a Secretary-General, who is elected to a four-year term by the member states at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.^{[citation needed]}

At the 17th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (2006) in Antalya, Turkey, the ITU's member states elected Dr Hamadoun Touré of Mali as Secretary-General of the Union.^[6] He was re-elected for a second four-year term at the 18th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (2010) in Guadalajara, Mexico.^{[citation needed]}

Directors and Secretaries-General of ITU [edit]

Directors of ITU
Name	Beginning of term	End of term	Country
Louis Curchod	1 January 1869	24 May 1872	Switzerland
Karl Lendi	24 May 1872	12 January 1873	Switzerland
Louis Curchod	23 February 1873	18 October 1889	Switzerland
August Frey	25 February 1890	28 June 1890	Switzerland
Timotheus Rothen	25 November 1890	11 February 1897	Switzerland
Emil Frey	11 March 1897	1 August 1921	Switzerland
Henri Étienne	2 August 1921	16 December 1927	Switzerland
Joseph Raber	1 February 1928	30 October 1934	Switzerland
Franz von Ernst	1 January 1935	31 December 1949	Switzerland
Secretaries general
Léon Mulatier	1 January 1950	31 December 1953	France
Marco Aurelio Andrada	1 January 1954	18 June 1958	Argentina
Gerald C. Gross	1 January 1960	29 October 1965	United States
Manohar Balaji Sarwate	30 October 1965	19 February 1967	India
Mohamed Ezzedine Mili	20 February 1967	31 December 1982	Tunisia
Richard E. Butler	1 January 1983	31 October 1989	Australia
Pekka Tarjanne	1 November 1989	31 January 1999	Finland
Yoshio Utsumi	1 February 1999	31 December 2006	Japan
Hamadoun Touré	1 January 2007	present	Mali

Membership [edit]

International Telecommunication Union member states

Membership of ITU is open to governments, which may join the Union as Member States, as well as to private organizations like carriers, equipment manufacturers, funding bodies, research and development organizations and international and regional telecommunication organizations, which can join ITU as non-voting Sector Members.^[7]

Member states of the ITU are 192 UN member states (all except Palau) and the Vatican City. The most recent member to join the ITU is South Sudan, which became a member on 14 July 2011.^[8]

The Republic of China (Taiwan) was blocked from membership^{[citation needed]} by the People's Republic of China, but was given a country code while being listed as "Taiwan, China".^[9] The Palestinian territories were admitted as observers in 2010.^[10]

World Summit on the Information Society [edit]

The ITU was the lead organizing agency of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).^[11]

World Conference on International Telecommunications 2012 (WCIT-12) [edit]

In December 2012, the ITU facilitated the The World Conference on International Telecommunications 2012 (WCIT-12) in Dubai. WCIT-12 was a treaty-level conference to address International Telecommunications Regulations: international rules for telecommunications, including international tariffs.^[12] The previous conference to update the Regulations (ITRs) was held in Melbourne in 1988.^[13]

In August 2012, ITU called for a public consultation on a draft document ahead of the conference.^[14] It is claimed the proposal would allow government restriction or blocking of information disseminated via the internet and create a global regime of monitoring internet communications – including the demand that those who send and receive information identify themselves. It would also allow governments to shut down the internet if there is the belief that it may interfere in the internal affairs of other states or that information of a sensitive nature might be shared.^[15]

Telecommunications ministers from 193 countries attended the conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.^[15]

Changes to International Telecommunication Regulations [edit]

The current regulatory structure was based on voice telecommunications, when the Internet was still in its infancy.^[16] In 1988, telecommunications operated under regulated monopolies in most countries. As the Internet has grown, organizations such as ICANN have come into existence to manage key resources such as Internet Addresses and Domain Names. Some outside the United States believe that the United States exerts too much influence over the governance of the Internet.^[17]

Proposed Changes to the Treaty And Concerns [edit]

Current proposals look to take into account the prevalence of data communications. Proposals under consideration would establish regulatory oversight by the U.N. over security, fraud, traffic accounting as well as traffic flow, management of Internet Domain Names and IP addresses, and other aspects of the Internet that are currently governed either by community-based approaches such as Regional Internet Registries, ICANN, or largely national regulatory frameworks.^[18] The move by the ITU and some countries has alarmed many within the United States and within the Internet community.^[19][20] Indeed some European telecommunication services have proposed a so-called "sender pays" model that would require sources of Internet traffic to pay destinations, similar to the way funds are transferred between countries using the telephone.^[21][22]

The WCIT-12 activity has been attacked by Google, which has characterized it as a threat to the "...free and open internet."^[23]

On 22 November 2012, the European Parliament passed a resolution urging member states to prevent ITU WCIT-12 activity that would "negatively impact the internet, its architecture, operations, content and security, business relations, internet governance and the free flow of information online".^[24] The resolution asserted that "the ITU [...] is not the appropriate body to assert regulatory authority over the internet".^[25]

On 5 December 2012, the lower chamber of the United States Congress passed a resolution opposing U.N. governance of the Internet by a rare unanimous 397-0 vote. The resolution warned that "... proposals have been put forward for consideration at the [WCIT-12] that would fundamentally alter the governance and operation of the Internet ... [and] would attempt to justify increased government control over the Internet ...", and stated that the policy of the United States is "... to promote a global Internet free from government control and preserve and advance the successful Multistakeholder Model that governs the Internet today." The same resolution had previously been passed unanimously by the upper chamber of the Congress in September.^[26]

On 14 December 2012, an amended version of the Regulations was signed by 89 of the 152 countries. Countries that did not sign included the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, India and the United Kingdom. The Head of the U.S. Delegation, Terry Kramer, said "We cannot support a treaty that is not supportive of the multistakeholder model of Internet governance". ^[27][28][29]However, the organisation came out with a press release: "New global telecoms treaty agreed in Dubai".

WCIT-12 Conference Participation [edit]

The conference itself was managed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). While certain parts of civil society and industry were able to advise and observe, active participation was restricted to member states.^[30] The Electronic Frontier Foundation expressed concern at this, calling for a more transparent multi-stakeholder process.^[31] Some leaked contributions can be found on the wcitleaks.org web site. Google-affiliated researchers have suggested that the ITU should completely reform its processes to align itself with the openness and participation of other multistakeholder organizations concerned with the Internet.^[32]

See also [edit]

ITU logo and slogan

• IETF
• Internet Governance Forum
• ICANN
• ARIN
• RIPE
• Afrinic
• LACNIC
• Internet Society
• Finkle, Jim. UN agency has big concerns about Flame virus, Reuters, May 29, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
• United States FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell
• Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA)
• H.331
• Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL)
• ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)
• ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D)
• ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T)
• ITU-R Recommendations
• ITU-T Recommendations
• Telephone numbers in the European Union
• X.509
• Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG)
• Child Online Protection initiative (COP)

References [edit]

External links [edit]

ITU headquarters, Geneva

• Official website
• History of ITU Portal (official site)
• ITU Telecom World 2011
• Protect Global Internet Freedom Coalition
• ITU defines the future of mobile communications
• U.N. Summit to Focus on Internet – Washington Post article about ICANN and the United Nations' ITU relationship
• Ryan/Glick: The ITU Treaty Negotiations: A Call for Openness and Participation
• Renda, Andrea. The U.N., Internet Regulator?, The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
• Thierer, Adam. Does the Internet Need a Global Regulator?, Forbes Magazine, May 6, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
• Cerf, Vinton. Keep the Internet Open, The New York Times, May 24, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
• Harrington, Matt. House lawmakers to consider proposal for United Nations to Regulate the Internet, syracuse.com, May 29, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
• Peterson, Josh. Deadline approaches for Russia and China-led U.N. Internet takeover, dailycaller.com, May 24, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
• C-SPAN. Coverage of Free State Foundation, May 30, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
• Kang, Cecilia. U.S. tech companies warn of threat to Internet from foreign governments, The Washington Post, May 31, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
• Shaw, Stephen. Putting the United Nations in charge of the Internet is the best idea ever, ZDNet. May 30, 2012. Retrieved June 1, 2012.

v t e Telecommunications History Beacon Broadcasting Communications satellite Computer network Drums Electrical telegraph Fax Heliographs Hydraulic telegraph Internet Mass media Mobile phone Optical telecommunication Optical telegraphy Photophone Prepaid mobile phone Radio Radiotelephone Satellite communications Smoke signals Telecommunications history Telegraphy Telephone The Telephone Cases Television Timeline of communication technology Undersea telegraph line Videoconferencing Videophone Videotelephony Pioneers Edwin Howard Armstrong John Logie Baird Alexander Graham Bell Tim Berners-Lee Jagadish Chandra Bose Vint Cerf Claude Chappe Lee De Forest Philo Farnsworth Reginald Fessenden Elisha Gray Guglielmo Marconi Alexander Stepanovich Popov Johann Philipp Reis Nikola Tesla Camille Papin Tissot Alfred Vail Charles Wheatstone Vladimir K. Zworykin Network topology links nodes terminal node Transmission media Coaxial cable Free-space optical Optical fiber Radio waves Telephone lines Terrestrial microwave Switching Circuit switching Packet switching Telephone exchange Network switch Multiplexing space-division multiplexing Frequency-division multiplexing Time-division multiplexing Polarization-division multiplexing Orbital angular momentum multiplexing Code division multiplexing Networks ARPANET BITNET Ethernet FidoNet Internet ISDN LAN Mobile NGN Public Switched Telephone Radio Telecommunications equipment Television Telex WAN Wireless World Wide Web Geographic v t e Telecommunications in Africa Sovereign states Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe States with limited recognition Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Somaliland Dependencies and other territories Canary Islands / Ceuta / Melilla / Plazas de soberanía (Spain) Madeira (Portugal) Mayotte / Réunion (France) Saint Helena / Ascension Island / Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom) Western Sahara v t e Telecommunications in Asia Sovereign states Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia People's Republic of China Cyprus East Timor (Timor-Leste) Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen States with limited recognition Abkhazia Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan Dependencies and other territories British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau v t e Telecommunications in Europe Sovereign states Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom States with limited recognition Abkhazia Kosovo Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria Dependencies and other territories Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Jersey Isle of Man Svalbard Other entities European Union v t e Telecommunications in North America Sovereign states Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago United States Dependencies and other territories Anguilla Aruba Bermuda Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curaçao Greenland Guadeloupe Martinique Montserrat Navassa Island Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saba Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten Turks and Caicos Islands United States Virgin Islands v t e Telecommunications in Oceania Sovereign states Australia East Timor (Timor-Leste) Fiji Indonesia Kiribati Marshall Islands Federated States of Micronesia Nauru New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu Dependencies and other territories American Samoa Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Cook Islands Easter Island French Polynesia Guam Hawaii New Caledonia Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Pitcairn Islands Tokelau Wallis and Futuna v t e Telecommunications in South America Sovereign states Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador Guyana Paraguay Peru Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Uruguay Venezuela Dependencies and other territories Aruba Bonaire Curaçao Falkland Islands French Guiana South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands