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Thirty years ago, 147 delegations from the ITU
Member States met in Geneva and deliberated
for ten weeks (from 24 September to 6 December
1979) under the chairmanship of Roberto Severini
of Argentina. It was the World Administrative Radio
Conference (WARC-79), an inter-governmental meeting
whose decisions have the force of an international
treaty and which still enjoys a decisive influence on
the development of all types of radiocommunications
and broadcasting. (WARC later became the World
Radiocommunication Conference.)
WARC-79 was the first time in twenty years that
ITU’s Radio Regulations were examined and completely
modified to meet new challenges of rapidly
changing technology and to provide better sharing
of spectrum and orbit resources among developed
and developing countries.
The main results of WARC-79 may be briefly formulated
as follows: starting with the full structural
rearrangement of the Radio Regulations, the conference
substantially modified the table of frequency
allocations and the associated procedures designed
to facilitate the application of these modifications. It
also worked out new approaches to facilitate access
to spectrum by developing countries, and decided to
convene conferences for planning Space services and
shortwave broadcasting services. In parallel, the conference
agreed on the expansion of the shortwave
spectrum allocated for broadcasting and adopted
major changes in the frequency allocations for Space
services.
The ITU Radio Regulations reviewed by WARC-79
came into force on 1 January 1982, and some agreements
are still applicable to this day. They include
agreements that regulate the world’s radio spectrum
and the satellite industry, as well as those that set the
standards for improving operation through cooperation.
Fundamentally, they are agreements that work
hard to bridge the digital divide and that enable ITU
to commit itself to connecting the world.
We all have good reason to celebrate this important
anniversary for wireless communications.
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