International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - Leadership, Standards, Members, Meetings, World Summit on the Information Society

An agency of the United Nations, which since 1947 has promoted worldwide co-operation in all aspects of telecommunications, such as the regulation of global telecom networks and radio frequencies. The ITU organizes internal conferences and manages its own publications and databases. Originally founded in Paris in 1865, it acquired its present name in 1934, and is now headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU; French: Union internationale des télécommunications, Spanish: Unión Internacional de Telecomunicaciones) is an international organization established to standardize and regulate international radio and telecommunications.

The ITU is made up of three bureaus:

Telecommunications Bureau (ITU-T) Radiocommunications Bureau (ITU-R) Development Bureau (ITU-D)

Leadership

The ITU is headed by a secretary-general, who is elected on a 4-year basis by the national members at the plenipotentary conference.

From 1998 to 2006, the secretary-general was Yoshio Utsumi from Japan.

At the 17th plenipotentary conference in Antalya, Turkey, the ITU members elected Hamadoun I.

Standards

The international standards that are produced by the ITU are referred to as "Recommendations" (with the word ordinarily capitalized to distinguish its meaning from the ordinary sense of the word "recommendation"). Due to its longevity as an international organization and its status as a specialized agency of the United Nations, standards promulgated by the ITU carry a higher degree of formal international recognition than those of most other organizations that publish technical specifications of a similar form.

The ITU has developed the "Digital Opportunity Index" (or DOI) as a tool to measure a nation's information and communication technology (ICT) capability.

Members

The work of the ITU is conducted by its members.

Meetings

The ITU decides matters between states and private organizations through an extensive series of working parties, study groups, regional meetings, and world meetings.

Examples

World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) World administrative radio conferences (WARC) Regional Radiocommunications Conferences (RRC)

World Summit on the Information Society

The ITU served as the secretariat of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a series of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information and communication, with a particular focus on its application to development.