From policy to practice: Making maritime communications work at sea
By Mario Maniewicz, Director, ITU Radiocommunication Bureau
Every day, ships rely on radiocommunications to navigate safely, stay connected, and call for help when lives are at risk. Making these systems work across borders takes more than technology.
It takes internationally agreed rules and the will to put them into practice.
That’s the message behind the World Maritime Day theme, “From Policy to Practice: Powering Maritime Excellence,” adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for the current year.
It’s a theme we know well at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), too. After all, helping convert global maritime rules into well-aligned national laws, practical enforcement and safe, smooth everyday operations has been a crucial part of ITU’s work for generations.
Global rules for communications at sea
The ITU Radio Regulations – the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits – provide the global framework for maritime radiocommunications. They cover distress and safety communications, protection of ship and coast station frequencies, licensing and certification, and more.
Our World Radiocommunication Conferences update the Radio Regulations every four years, keeping them in step with new technologies and operational needs.
But rules on paper aren’t enough. For a seafarer in distress, what matters is whether the system functions when needed. This means national administrations must understand and implement the agreed rules, while equipment and procedures on board ships must follow consistent standards.
Turning standards into safer operations
ITU’s technical standards for radiocommunications – known as ITU-R Recommendations – help manufacturers, regulators and operators keep maritime systems interoperable, reliable and compliant with international requirements. Some of our standards are incorporated directly into the Radio Regulations, making them part of the binding regulatory framework.
Together, ITU regulations and standards let ships communicate safely around the globe. They also support shipping’s ongoing digital transformation, with advanced communication and navigation technologies becoming increasingly essential.
International cooperation on maritime safety
Turning policies like these into practice depends on active cooperation. ITU works closely with IMO so that spectrum regulation, technical standards and maritime operational requirements evolve together.
The clearest example is the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), which combines satellite and terrestrial radiocommunication technologies to deliver distress alerts and maritime safety information. It works because of coordination at every level – from international organizations and national administrations to equipment manufacturers, coast stations, ship operators and seafarers themselves.
Practical support on the ground and at sea
A treaty or technical standard means little until it reaches the people who use it. National maritime and telecommunication administrations translate international requirements into domestic rules, licensing regimes, inspection procedures and everyday shipboard operations.
ITU supports this work with regulatory information, technical guidance, seminars and workshops, specialized tools and maritime databases – including our Manual for Use by the Maritime Mobile and Maritime Mobile-Satellite Services, or ITU Maritime Manual for short. The aim is straightforward – to make global rules usable in practice.
The regulatory cycle
This work continues as ITU Member States prepare for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27) in Shanghai, China. Several agenda items under study could affect maritime communications.
Agenda item 1.1, for example, examines the use of the 47.2–50.2 Gigahertz (GHz) and 50.4–51.4 GHz bands by aeronautical and maritime earth stations in motion (ESIM) communicating with satellite systems, aiming to enable these services while protecting other spectrum users. Other agenda items touch on possible new identifications for international mobile telecommunications (IMT) use in bands where other services currently operate. The integration of mobile-satellite systems and IMT networks to complement terrestrial coverage is also under study by WRC-27.
IMO is contributing to WRC-27 preparations on all topics relevant to maritime services, reflecting its longstanding cooperation with ITU on radiocommunications and safety at sea.
That recurring cycle, from international agreement to practical implementation, is fundamental to keeping maritime communications evolving while protecting safety of life at sea.
From international decisions to safer seas
Maritime communications are easy to overlook when everything functions properly. But in an emergency, they are everything: a distress alert needs to get through; a warning must reach the right vessel; radio frequencies must remain free of interference; and equipment from different countries and manufacturers must inter-operate reliably.
