About ITU administrative telegraph and telephone conferences and the Telegraph and Telephone Regulations
What was an administrative telegraph and telephone conference?
The purpose of the former ITU administrative telegraph and telephone conferences was to review and revise the regulations concerning telegraphy and telephony. These regulations contained provisions of a technical and administrative nature that could be subject to frequent changes due to the progress of telecommunications technology. They complemented the Telegraph (later Telecommunication) Convention to which they were considered annexed and were binding on all ITU Member States and on all operators within the Member States that were engaged in the provision of international telecommunication services.
Administrative conferences did not have the authority to revise the Convention of ITU. Throughout the history of ITU, the plenipotentiary conference has been the only body with the power to amend the International Telegraph (later Telecommunication) Convention, today the Constitution and Convention of ITU. These Basic Instruments give ITU its legal personality, establish its structure and define its functions.
The origins of the administrative conference and the Telegraph Regulations
The first International Telegraph Conference held in Paris in 1865 established the International Telegraph Union and the basic elements of the Union’s structure: a formal convention, regulations, and a structural mechanism whereby these instruments could be modified and updated in the future by periodic conferences.
This structure was refined and formalized ten years later at the 1875 International Telegraph Conference in St. Petersburg. At this Conference, the International Telegraph Convention was revised and simplified to include only general provisions of a policy nature that would remain in effect for an “indeterminate length of time” (Article 20). All the details of a transitory and specific nature were put into the Telegraph Regulations, and it was decided that the Regulations could henceforth be revised by Administrative Conferences (Articles 15-16). Administrative conferences would be attended by technical experts from the Member States who would not have the right to revise any of the provisions of the International Telegraph Convention itself. The Convention could only be revised by a plenipotentiary conference.
For the next sixty years after the St. Petersburg Conference, the Union held only Administrative Conferences to review and revise the Telegraph Regulations and the Table of Telegraphic Rates. The International Telegraph Convention of St. Petersburg remained untouched until a plenipotentiary conference was held in Madrid in 1932.
Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conferences, 1938-1988
In 1932, in Madrid, the International Telegraph Conference and the International Radiotelegraph Conference met together and decided to merge into a single entity, the International Telecommunication Union, with a single convention embracing the three fields of telegraphy, telephony and radio. Annexed to the new International Telecommunication Convention were three sets of Administrative Regulations: Telegraph, Telephone and Radio Regulations.
Following the tradition established by the 1875 International Telegraph Convention, Article 18 of the new 1932 Convention stipulated that the Convention could only be revised by a plenipotentiary conference, while the three sets of Regulations were subject to revision by Administrative Conferences. Furthermore, each Administrative Conference was permitted to admit the participation, in a consultative capacity, of private enterprises recognized by the respective Member States.
After 1932, the Telegraph Regulations and the Telephone Regulations were reviewed and revised together at Telegraph and Telephone Conferences until 1988, when the two sets of Regulations were merged into the International Telecommunication Regulations. At the 1992 Additional Plenipotentiary Conference in Geneva, Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conferences were abolished and replaced by World Conferences on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in the Constitution of the International Telecommunication Union. A WCIT may revise the International Telecommunication Regulations and may deal with any question of a worldwide character within its competence and related to its agenda.
Telegraph and Telephone Regulations
The Telegraph Regulations, as annexed to the 1865 Telegraph Convention and as revised and expanded over the years, contained provisions which dealt with the international telegraph network; the service provided by telegraph offices; charging systems, the composition of tariffs and the collection of charges; signaling codes; the preparation of telegrams and the counting of words; the routing, transmission and delivery of telegrams; telegrams relating to the safety of life; government telegrams; and press telegrams and other special cases.
Following the patenting of the telephone in 1876 and the subsequent expansion of telephony, the Telegraph Union decided in 1885 to add regulations for “the international telephone service” to the Telegraph Regulations. These regulations were substantially expanded at the 1903 London Telegraph Conference and eventually became a separate set of regulations – the Telephone Regulations – at the 1932 Madrid Telegraph Conference. The Telephone Regulations contained provisions which dealt in particular with the international telephone network, methods of charging and international accounting. These Regulations also defined various categories of calls and laid down priorities for the setting up of calls.
International Telecommunication Regulations
At the 1988 World Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference in Melbourne, the Telegraph and Telephone Regulations were merged into a single set of regulations, the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs). The ITRs govern the provision and operation of public telecommunication services, as well as the underlying transport mechanisms used to provide them. They provide a broad, basic framework for telecommunication administrations and operators in the provision of international telecommunication services. Because of the rapid evolution of telecommunication technology, the ITRs focus on broad general principles. Detailed technical specifications relating to the functioning and operation of equipment and systems are contained in ITU-T Recommendations, which are continually updated as needed.
The ITRs have not been revised since 1988. After much review and discussion the past few years, a World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) to reform the ITRs has been scheduled for 2012. For more information, see the ITU web page Council Working Group to Prepare for the 2012 WCIT (CWG-WCIT12).
Since 1932, the Radio Regulations have been revised by a variety of general and specialized administrative radio conferences and, more recently, by world and regional radiocommunication conferences. In this portal, radio conferences of all types from 1903 to the present have been grouped together and can be found in the section Radio Conferences.