INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION


 
THE CURRENT AND FUTURE STATE OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY
Address by Dr Pekka Tarjanne, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Minneapolis, 30 June 1997
Madame Ambassador,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure indeed to be here today in Minneapolis, and to have the opportunity of addressing 
you after such an excellent lunch.
The rather formidable title of my address this afternoon is ‘The Current and Future State of the 
Telecommunications Industry’. I say formidable, because as we all know, the world in which we operate is 
transforming itself so quickly that it is often difficult simply to keep pace – and it is a brave man indeed who 
readily accepts the challenge of predicting the future under such conditions. To quote one of the industry’s 
leading figures, Mr Robert Allen, of AT&T, “If anyone in this room can tell me what the telecommunications 
industry will look like in three years’ time, then I’d like to know what they’re on!”
That said, there are some trends emerging which are likely to have a long-term impact on the way 
telecommunications develops, and on the way, ultimately, that you and I – and perhaps particularly our 
children – will communicate with one another, and with the rest of the world.
The liberalization of the world’s telecommunications markets – a process which began perhaps a decade 
ago, but which has been given much additional impetus by the recent World Trade Organization agreement 
on Trade in Telecommunication Services – will profoundly change the global telecommunications 
environment. Recent ITU figures put the value of telecommunications trade in equipment and services at 
some 100 billion US dollars in 1996. As the world continues to move inexorably towards the Information Age, 
and becomes increasingly reliant on the electronic exchange and dissemination of information, there is no 
doubt that this figure will continue to grow exponentially. Telecommunications is rapidly becoming an 
essential strategic resource for business, on a par with labour and capital. Those who learn to master and 
develop this resource will be the future winners in the global information economy.
The phenomenal growth of the Internet is of course another feature of today’s environment which is 
reshaping the way we work and live. In the future, electronic commerce and computer-based global 
information networks – such as the Internet – will account for a substantial proportion of telecommunications 
traffic and revenues. And they will have a significant effect on the way tomorrow’s telecommunications 
networks develop. The ITU, conscious of the need to involve its Members in the development of what is 
already one of the lynch-pins of the emerging Global Information Infrastructure, has already taken a first step 
in contributing to the enhancement of these new information systems, by accepting a role as depository of the 
Memorandum of Understanding on Internet Generic Top-Level Domain Names.
We are also witnessing, today, the birth of another new type of communication system: the Global Mobile 
Personal Communication by Satellite systems, which promise to bring seamless high-quality voice and data 
services to the four corners of the world, regardless of geographic or climatic impediments, or poor local 
telecommunications infrastructure. These systems will represent, for many of the world’s people, their first 
real chance to communicate freely with the rest of the world, and is truly a great step forward in the 
development of Marshall McLuhan’s famous vision of the ‘Global Village’.
In this environment of change and transition, the ITU too is having to re-invent itself to deal with today’s new 
challenges and the challenges of the future. As the world’s oldest intergovernmental organization, it is 
possible to imagine that we are a little set in our ways, and resistant to change. Quite the contrary is true. 
Since our founding in Paris in 1865, we have witnessed the birth of the telephone, radiocommunications, 
communications satellites, the fax machine, global high speed computer networks, and now the networks 
within networks which make up today’s complex communications infrastructure. Indeed, when I walked into 
the ITU on my first day as Secretary General – not so very long ago – the World Wide Web had not even 
been invented, and the telex was still a principal means of communication for many of our Members.
Throughout the last 132 years, the ITU has worked to embrace each new technology, and to reshape its work 
and methods to adapt to new environments. Today is no different, and as we approach next year’s 
Plenipotentiary Conference, here in Minneapolis, we are already reviewing our role, to ensure that we remain 
an effective player in the global telecommunications community, as well as an essential resource for our 
Members.
1998’s Minneapolis Plenipotentiary will be one of the most important conferences the ITU has ever held. As 
with the development of radiocommunications, and later of voice telephony, we are facing a future which will 
be profoundly transformed by new technologies and new, perhaps as-yet-undreamt-of ways of 
communicating. Convergence between our industry and the audio-visual entertainment and computing 
industries will spawn new types of equipment, and new ways of working and playing.
In the lead up to next year’s conference, ITU Council last week examined the report of the Working Group 
known as ITU 2000. It is the task of this group to re-orient the ITU’s mission to position it for a new era, and 
to identify priorities and strategies which need to be addressed and developed to keep our organization 
relevant and effective. The Group has made a number of important recommendations, including an 
enhanced role for the private sector in the work of the Union, the fostering of closer working arrangements 
with other international and regional organizations, such as the WTO, new approaches to funding and cost 
recovery, the implementation of new, project-based working methods where appropriate, and a strengthening 
of the role of the ITU in facilitating partnerships between telecommunications entities with a view to promoting 
development, in particular in the Least Developed Countries.
The vision outlined in this document, along with the Strategic Plan of the Union for the years 1999-2003, will 
form the basis of our work in Minneapolis, and will determine in a most fundamental way the future of our 
organization. For the ITU to have the great future it deserves, we must, as we have done before, embrace 
rather than resist the changes taking place around us. The information revolution, which has become 
somewhat of a cliché in the press, is a daily reality for us at the ITU. We remain unique as an 
intergovernmental organization, in our leading role in the global information society, in our ability to bridge the 
gap between the developed and developing worlds, and in our capacity to foster links between the private 
sector, government and global and regional organizations.
I look forward to bringing my organization to the beginnings of a new era at the Plenipotentiary Conference in 
Minneapolis in 1998, and to prepare the ITU to start along the uncharted highways of the New 
Telecommunications World. I would like to leave you today with a most apt quotation from the Spanish poet, 
Antonio Machado, borrowed from the address of this year’s distinguished ITU Council Chairman, Mr Mauricio 
Bossa: “Traveller, there are no roads. The road is made by the traveller.”
Thank you.



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