ITU: The International Telecommunication Union
On
24th May 1844, Samuel Morse sent his first public message over a
telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore and through that simple act,
ushered in the tele-communication age. Barely ten years later, telegraphy was available as a service to the general
public. In those days, however, telegraph lines did not cross national borders
and because each country used different system, messages had to be transcribed, translated and
handed over at frontiers, then re-transmitted over the telegraph network of the neighbouring country.
Given the slow and unwieldy nature of this system, many countries eventually decided to establish arrangements
which would facilitate interconnection of their
national networks. However, because such arrangements were managed by each
country at a national level, setting
up telegraph links often required a huge number of separate agreements. To
simplify matters countries began to develop bilateral or regional agreements so
that by 1864 there were several regional conventions in place.
In 1865,
the first International Telegraph Convention was signed in Paris by the 20 founding members, and the
International Telegraph Union (ITU) was established to facilitate subsequent
amendments to this initial agreement. Today, some 135 years later, the reasons
which led to the establishment of ITU still apply, and the fundamental
objectives of the organization remain basically un changed.
Following
the patenting of the telephone in 1876 and the subsequent expansion of
telephony, the ITU began, in
1885 to draw up international legislation governing telephony. With the
invention in 1876 of wireless
telegraphy. With the invention in 1896 of wireless telegraphy- the first type
of radio communication and the
utilization of this new technique for maritime and other purposes, it was decided
to form a preliminary radio conference in 1903 to study the question of
international regulations for radio telegraph communication. The first Int.
Radio Telegraph conference in 1960 in Berlin
signed the first Int. Radio Telegraph
convention.
Under
an agreement with the newly created United Nations, it became a UN specialized
agency in 1947 with its
headquarter in Geneva .
In 1957, the first satellite, sputnik-1 was launched and began the space age. In 1963, the first
geostationary communication satellite synom-1 was put into orbit. Conferences made allocations and put in
place regulations governing the….. by satellites of the radio frequency spectrum and associated orbital
slots. In 1992, allocations were made for the first time to serve the needs of a new kind of
space service using non-geostationary satellites.
The
ITU is unique among international organization in that it was founded as the
principle of cooperation between governments and the private sector. With a
membership encouraging telecommunication policy-makers and regulators, network
operators, equipment manufacturers, hardware and software developers, regional
standards making organizations and financing institutions. ITU’s activities
policies and strategic direction are determined and shaped by the industry it
serves.
ITU publishes books and documents used by
ships radio operators, including:
1.
ITU manual for use by the
Maritime Mobile and Maritime Mobile- Satellite services 1992
2.
ITU list of coast stations
3.
ITU list o ship’s stations
4.
ITU list of radio determination
and special services and
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