About Radio conferences and Radio Regulations
Work in progress! |
Currently, this portal contains information and digitized copies of documents for only a few of the earliest radio conferences. Work on digitizing the documents of the later conferences and making them available via this portal will continue through 2010-2011. |
The origins of radio conferences and the Radio Regulations
With the invention in 1896 of wireless radio-telegraphy and the widespread adoption of this technique for maritime communication, it was decided to convene a preliminary radio conference in 1903 to study the question of international regulations for radiotelegraph communications. At the International Radiotelegraph Conference held in 1906 in Berlin, the first International Radiotelegraph Convention was signed. Following the example of the International Telegraph Convention and its annexed Telegraph Regulations, the annex to the Radiotelegraph Convention contained the first regulations governing wireless telegraphy. The Berlin Conference also adopted the practice of the International Telegraph Union to hold periodic conferences to review and revise the Radiotelegraph Convention and the regulations annexed thereto. The regulations, which have since been amended and revised by numerous radio conferences held throughout the years, are now known as the Radio Regulations and have the value of an international treaty and are binding on Member States.
The International Telecommunication Convention and the Radio Regulations
Although there were many areas of common interest, or even duplication, in the regulation of wire and wireless communications, Telegraph and Radiotelegraph Conferences were held separately until 1932. 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. The new International Telecommunication Convention served as the Union’s charter, establishing its legal existence and setting forth its purposes, compositions, structure and functions. Annexed to the 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 Telecommunication Convention stipulated that the Convention could only be revised by a plenipotentiary conference, while the 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.
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.
The Radio Regulations
The purpose of the Radio Regulations is to ensure interference-free operations of radiocommunication systems. They contain general rules for the assignment and use of frequencies and the associated orbital positions for space stations and include a Table of Frequency Allocations for the various radio services (inter alia radio broadcasting, television, radio astronomy, navigation aids, point-to-point service, maritime mobile, amateur). The Regulations also deal with ways of avoiding harmful interference and contain various other provisions, such as those relating to the qualifications required for station operators, and the nature and contents of essential documents for international radio service.