The 1973 World Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference (WATTC-73) met in Geneva for just one week in April to finalize and approve new versions of the Telegraph and Telephone Regulations. In the fifteen years since the last conference in 1958, the Regulations approved then had remained in force despite rapid developments in the means of transmission and the expansion of facilities offered to customers.
The 1965 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference had requested that the Telegraph and Telephone Regulations be simplified by making some provisions the subject of recommendations. The International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee (CCITT) did a great deal of work on this issue at its Plenary Assemblies in 1968 (Mar del Plata) and 1972 (Geneva). The texts submitted by the CCITT to the 1973 Conference had therefore been thoroughly prepared in advance.
The Telegraph and Telephone Regulations approved by the Conference were substantially simplified from the previous version. By transferring some of the more detailed provisions for telegraph and telephone services to CCITT Recommendations, the provisions could be more easily updated and thus more responsive to rapidly evolving technology in the future.
The Conference was remarkable for the spirit of co-operation and mutual goodwill which prevailed throughout its deliberations, and as a result no question was put to the vote.