King Felipe VI presides over the 150th anniversary of the International Telecommunications Union

Founded in Paris in 1865 under the name of the International Telegraph Union, the ITU adopted its current name in 1932 and in 1947 it became a specialized agency of the United Nations.

This Tuesday in Madrid, King Felipe VI presided over the 150th anniversary of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU/ITU). The event held in the old session hall of the Spanish Senate, the same place where the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICT) was born, brought together prominent professionals from the world of telecommunications.

Felipe VI has been accompanied on this International Telecommunications Day by the Secretary General of the ITU, Houlin Zhao, the President of the Senate, Pío García-Escudero, and the Minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria.

Founded in Paris in 1865 under the name of the International Telegraph Union, the ITU adopted its current name in 1932 and in 1947 it became a specialized agency of the United Nations.

After the great global upheavals of the first decades of the twentieth century and five years after its proposal at the IV International Administrative Radiotelegraph Conference in Washington in 1927, the V Plenipotentiary Conference of the UTI (International Telegraph Union) was held jointly in Madrid, during the last quarter of 1932, attended by delegations from eighty countries, and the V International Radiotelegraph Conference, in which sixty-five countries participated. The meeting was a historic milestone, as the first Convention for the creation of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) was signed.

On September 3, 1932, Manuel Azaña, then President of Spain, declared open in Madrid the 5th Plenipotentiary Conference of what was then known as the International Telegraph Union. The Conference was chaired by Santiago Casares Quiroga, Minister of the Interior of Spain. The event was complex, since it was held in conjunction with the 4th International Radiotelegraph Conference. Both Conferences (through a commission) were to decide, among other things, how to create and name a consolidated international organization.

The result was the merger of the International Telegraph Convention and the International Radiotelegraphy Convention into a single International Telecommunications Convention. What has since been called the International Telecommunications Union was created.

After arduous deliberations, the new Convention was signed on December 9, 1932. The Madrid Conference not only created a single treaty and organization for telecommunications, but also marked the achievement of the true international status of the ITU by virtue of the number of signatory States. The choice of the Union's new name, which came into force on 1 January 1934, reflected the scope of the ITU's mission, which by then encompassed all forms of wire and wireless communications.

El denominado Convenio de Madrid, y las revisiones sucesivas del mismo, constituyen un Tratado entre Estados soberanos comprometidos en el desarrollo armónico de las telecomunicaciones internacionales. Posteriormente, la Conferencia de Plenipotenciarios de Ginebra (1992) finaliza el debate iniciado por la celebrada en Torremolinos (España) en 1973 introdujo cambios importantes en la estructura de la UIT adoptando una constitución como instrumento fundamental, y el Convenio de la Unión Internacional de Telecomunicaciones, que la completa.

Es precisamente a raíz de la Conferencia de Madrid en 1932 cuando el vocablo telecomunicación alcanza el significado que tiene hoy en día.

The ITU, an organization in which the public and private sectors have been associated since its creation, currently has 193 member countries and some 700 private sector entities. Its Headquarters are in Geneva (Switzerland) and it has 12 regional and area offices around the world.

Digital world without borders

During his speech, Felipe VI explained that "today everything largely depends on technology. Even more so in a context like the current one, in which information and telecommunications technologies are an essential factor for economic growth, social advances and, ultimately, the development of people."

For his part, the Secretary General of the ITU, Houlin Zhao, stressed that "it is a great privilege to be here today and to be able to celebrate this day together. I want to thank Spain for its continued support and encourage us all to look together at future years of fruitful international cooperation."

El ministro de Industria, Energía y Turismo, José Manuel Soria, ha aprovechado su intervención para resaltar que “en este mundo digital es imprescindible que países y regiones converjan y colaboren, porque el mundo digital no conoce fronteras. Por ello, gobiernos, legisladores y organizaciones internacionales no debemos dejar de trabajar para que ciudadanos y empresas puedan disfrutar de una experiencia digital abierta y puedan habitar de forma fluida en un ecosistema digital cada vez más complejo, con más servicios, mercados y dispositivos”.