The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Union, significantly predating the UN and making it the oldest UN agency. Doreen Bogdan-Martin is the Secretary-General of ITU, the first woman to serve as its head.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) allocates call sign prefixes for radio and television stations of all types. They also form the basis for, but may not exactly match, aircraft registration identifiers. These prefixes are agreed upon internationally, and are a form of country code. A call sign can be any number of letters and numerals but each country must only use call signs that begin with the characters allocated for use in that country.
A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), to accommodate the difference between precise time and imprecise observed solar time (UT1), which varies due to irregularities and long-term slowdown in the Earth's rotation. The UTC time standard, widely used for international timekeeping and as the reference for civil time in most countries, uses TAI and consequently would run ahead of observed solar time unless it is reset to UT1 as needed. The leap second facility exists to provide this adjustment. The leap second was introduced in 1972. Since then, 27 leap seconds have been added to UTC, with the most recent occurring on December 31, 2016. All have so far been positive leap seconds, adding a second to a UTC day; while it is possible for a negative leap second to be needed, one has not happened yet.
An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, cartography and others. The most common type are Earth imaging satellites, that take satellite images, analogous to aerial photographs; some EO satellites may perform remote sensing without forming pictures, such as in GNSS radio occultation.
The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet or simply the Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used set of clear-code words for communicating the letters of the Roman alphabet. Technically a radiotelephonic spelling alphabet, it goes by various names, including NATO spelling alphabet, ICAO phonetic alphabet, and ICAO spelling alphabet. The ITU phonetic alphabet and figure code is a rarely used variant that differs in the code words for digits.
The ITU Radio Regulations (RR) is a basic document of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that regulates on law of nations scale radiocommunication services and the utilisation of radio frequencies. It is the supplementation to the ITU Constitution and Convention and in line with the ITU International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR). The ITU RR comprise and regulate the part of the allocated electromagnetic spectrum from 9 kHz to 300 GHz.
From early in the 20th century, the radio frequency of 500 kilohertz (500 kHz) was an international calling and distress frequency for Morse code maritime communication. For much of its early history, this frequency was referred to by its equivalent wavelength, 600 meters, or, using the earlier frequency unit name, 500 kilocycles or 500 kc.
The 6-meter band is the lowest portion of the very high frequency (VHF) radio spectrum internationally allocated to amateur radio use. The term refers to the average signal wavelength of 6 meters.
Younes Shokrkhah is an Iranian journalist and academician. Younes, who lectures on communications and journalism, has been a journalist for thirty years, and is the ICT consultant for ME Printer magazine and a member of the Academic Board of the Center for Media Studies. He has been member of the juries of a dozen press and photo-journalism competitions.
The 60-meter band or 5MHz band is a relatively new amateur radio allocation. First introduced in 2002, it was originally available in only a few countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Ireland and Iceland. Several decades in use, an increasing proportion of countries' telecommunications administrations – together with their government and military users – have permitted Amateur Radio operation in the 5MHz area on a short or longer-term basis, ranging from discrete channels to a frequency band allocation.
A spelling alphabet is a set of words used to represent the letters of an alphabet in oral communication, especially over a two-way radio or telephone. The words chosen to represent the letters sound sufficiently different from each other to clearly differentiate them. This avoids any confusion that could easily otherwise result from the names of letters that sound similar, except for some small difference easily missed or easily degraded by the imperfect sound quality of the apparatus. For example, in the Latin alphabet, the letters B, P, and D sound similar and could easily be confused, but the words "bravo", "papa" and "delta" sound completely different, making confusion unlikely.
The World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) was a 1979 technical conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) where delegates from member nations of the ITU met to revise or amend the entire international radio regulations pertaining to all telecommunication services throughout the world. The conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland, with preparatory conferences held in Panama City, Panama.
The 2200-meter or 136 kHz band is the lowest frequency band in which amateur radio operators are licensed to transmit. It was formally allocated to amateurs at the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07). The band is available on a secondary basis in all ITU regions with the limitation that amateur stations have maximum radiated power of 1 watt effective isotropic radiated power.
The 23 centimeter, 1200 MHz or 1.2 GHz band is a portion of the UHF (microwave) radio spectrum internationally allocated to amateur radio and amateur satellite use on a secondary basis. The amateur radio band is between 1240 MHz and 1300 MHz. The amateur satellite band is between 1260 MHz and 1270 MHz, and its use by satellite operations is only for up-links on a non-interference basis to other radio users. The allocations are the same in all three ITU regions.
The UMTS frequency bands are radio frequencies used by third generation (3G) wireless Universal Mobile Telecommunications System networks. They were allocated by delegates to the World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC-92) held in Málaga-Torremolinos, Spain between 3 February 1992 and 3 March 1992. Resolution 212 (Rev.WRC-97), adopted at the World Radiocommunication Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland in 1997, endorsed the bands specifically for the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specification by referring to S5.388, which states "The bands 1,885-2,025 MHz and 2,110-2,200 MHz are intended for use, on a worldwide basis, by administrations wishing to implement International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000). Such use does not preclude the use of these bands by other services to which they are allocated. The bands should be made available for IMT-2000 in accordance with Resolution 212 ." To accommodate the reality that these initially defined bands were already in use in various regions of the world, the initial allocation has been amended multiple times to include other radio frequency bands.
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communication, navigation, scientific research, and commerce.
Veena Rawat is an electrical engineer who specializes in telecommunications. Rawat was the first woman to graduate with a PhD in electrical engineering from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She held executive positions managing programs related to radio frequency spectrum engineering for all wireless and space communication services in the Canadian Government, was the President of the Communications Research Centre (CRC), and was the Vice President and Ambassador to the International Telecommunication Union, for Blackberry, Advanced Technology Division, Canada. In 2014 she was awarded the Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) for her lifetime achievements and contributions at the national and international levels to wireless communications.
ITU Telecom is part of the ITU, the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies – ICTs. ITU Telecom organizes the global ITU Telecom World event, the platform for innovation showcasing, high-level debate, knowledge sharing and networking for the governments, industry leaders, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and regulators that form part of the world's ICT community. The first ITU Telecom event was held in 1971. Since its fortieth anniversary in 2011, ITU Telecom World has been held on an annual basis in a different location worldwide. 2020's event will be ITU Digital World, taking place online from 20–22 October. ITU Digital World 2021 will be back in its usual form in Ha Noi Viet Nam in October 2021.
The 630-meter amateur radio band is a frequency band allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to amateur radio operators, and it ranges from 472–479 kHz, or equivalently 625.9–635.1 meters wavelength. It was formally allocated to amateurs at the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12). The band is available on a secondary basis in all ITU regions with the limitation that amateur stations have maximum radiated power of 1 watt effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP); however, stations more than 800 km from certain countries may be permitted to use 5 watts EIRP.
The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) is the governing conference of the ITU Standardization Sector (ITU-T), one of the three world conferences of the International Telecommunication Union, and as such, the United Nations system. The quadrennial conference decides the working methods for ITU-T for the next Study Period. It also creates the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) and the ITU-T Study Groups and elects their management teams. The Recommendations and resolutions that are approved at WTSA shape the future of ICT standardization.
