International Telecommunication Conferences: Minutes and Papers

This series consists of conference documents and related papers inherited by the Home Office from the Post Office and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, reflecting Britain's involvement in the field of international communications generally and particularly the International Telecommunication Union and its predecessors.

The International Telecommunication Union, the oldest of the intergovernmental organisations which have become specialised agencies in relation with the United Nations, originated in 1865, when the International Telegraph Union was founded in Paris with the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention. This Convention was revised by Plenipotentiary Conferences in Vienna 1868, Rome 1872, and St Petersburg 1875. At Vienna it was decided to create a permanent international bureau, the forerunner of the present General Secretariat of the ITU. The St Petersburg Convention remained unchanged until 1932, the annexed regulations alone being revised at a series of administrative conferences, two of which, 1879 and 1903, were held in London.

In 1932 two plenipotentiary conferences were held in Madrid and the conventions of the Telegraph and Telephone Conference and the Radiotelegraphic Conference were amalgamated in a single International Telecommunication Convention, the signatories forming the International Telecommunication Union. Four sets of regulations were attached to the Convention (telegraph, telephone, radio and additional radio regulations) and were revised by successive Administrative Conferences.

In 1947 a Plenipotentiary Conference met in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to revise the Madrid Convention and introduced radical changes in the structure of the organisation. The supreme organ of the Union is the Plenipotentiary Conference which alone can revise the Convention and which elects the Administrative Council to co-ordinate Union activities internally and in relation to the United Nations and other international organisations, and to supervise the management and finances of the Union: the Conference meets every five to six years, the Council annually, functioning only when in session. The General Secretariat is the organ of liaison between telecommunication Administrations throughout the world: the Secretary-General is responsible to the Plenipotentiary Conference and between its sessions to the Administrative Council for all the administrative and financial services of the Union.

The International Frequency Registration Board (IRFB) was first created in 1947, being made up of eleven independent members, all nationals of different countries, elected by the ordinary administrative radio conference to act as 'impartial custodians of an international public trust' in ensuring the most effective use of the radio spectrum by the allocation, registration and monitoring of radio frequencies.

The International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) formed in 1947 replaced the International Telegraph Consultative Committee (CCIT) and the International Telephone Consultative Committee (CCIF) created in 1925 and 1924 respectively. It studies and issues recommendations on the technical, operating and tariff questions connected with telegraphy and telephony. The International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) carries out the same duties in relation to radio. These two consultative committees have as members the Administrations of all members or associate members of the Union as well as recognised private operating agencies. They work largely through study groups which are set up by and report to plenary assemblies which normally meet every three years.

The official languages of the Union are now English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese, the first three being the working languages and the French text authoritative in the event of dispute. Before 1947 the only official language was French and the majority of the records in this series are therefore wholly or partly in French, although in many cases English titles have been used in this list.