International Telecommunication Union — 150 years of history: adaptation to change and the opportunity for reform

Abstract

Through its history the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has witnessed great inventions and has played an active role in the technology development that has been shaping the world of telecommunications. The ITU milestones are numerous. One of them is of particular importance because it symbolizes better than any other the need for harmonious worldwide development and desire for universal cooperation. It was established at the Atlantic City conference in 1947 when the entry of ITU into the United Nations (UN) family as a Specialized Agency for Telecommunications was decided. By the end of the 1980s the technology evolution and fresh regulatory dynamism announced global changes in the national and international telecommunication environment and consequently in the role of the ITU Constituencies. For different reasons, the Union has not adapted itself with sufficient speed to these processes and over the years the technical spirit of the Atlantic City conference has been weakening and political debates have been installed instead. Performance of the ITU mission has been suffering due to its increasingly weaker leadership and inefficient governing bodies. The most recent ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, held in Busan in 2014, was facing the challenge to address the need for reforms in order to ensure the sustainability of the Union into the future and reinforce its status as an advocate of global technical excellence. Unfortunately, the need for reform was not specifically recognized and reflected in the Objectives enunciated in the Strategic Plan for the Union for the period 2016-2019, and any reorganization of the structure and functioning of the Union, currently recognized as being archaic and conservative, was left in abeyance. The analysis made and the conclusions reached in this paper may assist future high-level discussions on the subject matter and may facilitate an early promotion of the ITU Reform Policies. The reform guidelines offered herein may also further reinforce the views of those Member States that are sincerely concerned and interested in creating a new paradigm for a better future of their Union.