International Telecommunication Union - Definition and Overview

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is an international organization established to standardize and regulate international radio and telecommunications. It was founded as the International Telegraph Union in Paris in May 17, 1865, and is today the world's oldest international organization. Its main tasks include standardization, allocation of the radio spectrum, and organizing interconnection arrangements between different countries to allow international phone calls. (In which regard it performs for telecommunications a similar function to what the UPU performs for postal services.) It is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations.

See also:

• ITU-T Telecommunications Sector
• ITU-R Radiocommunications Sector
• ITU-D Development Sector

Meetings

The ITU decides matters between states through an extensive series of working parties, study groups, regional meetings, and world meetings.

Examples:

• World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC)
• World Administrative Radio Conferences (WARC)

World Summit on the Information Society

The ITU is serving as the secretariat of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

External links

• ITU official site (http://www.itu.int/)
• ITU history from the official site (http://www.itu.int/aboutitu/overview/history.html)
• U.N. Summit to Focus on Internet (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36852-2003Dec4?language=printer) - Washington Post article about ICANN and the United Nations' ITU relationship