Twenty states, one table in Paris, two and a half months of haggling. The result, signed on May 17, 1865, was the International Telegraph Convention and with it the International Telegraph Union, which the ITU’s own history calls “the first international organization dedicated to regulating and improving technology on a global scale.”
The problem was practical. Telegraph lines ran up to a border and stopped. A message crossing into the next country had to be halted and retranslated, because every network used its own equipment and procedures. UN Today, in a 2025 history of the agency, notes that the founding members signed to standardize that equipment and set uniform operating rules. The conference produced regulations that, in the ITU’s words, “harmonized tariffs, procedures, and technology across Europe and as far as its borders with Asia and Africa.”
From Bern to Geneva
Coordination could not be a one-off. In 1869 the union opened an International Bureau in Bern, Switzerland, a secretariat that gathered and circulated information among members. It moved to Geneva in 1948. Members got a monthly journal with news, statistics and contributed articles.
The mandate grew with the technology. The 1885 conference wrote the first international telephone regulations. Rules for wireless telegraphy followed in 1906. Radio proved its worth at sea, where distress calls such as “SOS” could now travel without a cable. The telegraph-era name eventually gave way to International Telecommunication Union.
After the ITU became a UN specialized agency, it relocated to Geneva in 1947. It first worked out of three separate buildings. The Varembé Building, provided by the Canton of Geneva, was inaugurated in 1962. A year later, a conference of 70 countries allocated frequency bands for space radiocommunication, which UN Today describes as the start of “a new era.”
From the 1950s the agency also began coordinating technical assistance to help developing countries build out their telecom networks.
Who belongs now
The ITU today unites 194 governments with more than 1,000 companies, universities and organizations, according to UN Today. It manages radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbit resources, jobs that grow harder as wireless traffic climbs. Its work now takes in artificial intelligence, advanced mobile networks and immersive digital communication.
Leadership changed in 2022. Doreen Bogdan-Martin of the United States won the secretary-general’s post on September 29 of that year, beating Russia’s Rashid Ismailov by 139 votes to 25, the Associated Press reported. She became the first woman to hold the office. A 29-year ITU veteran, she was then running its telecommunication development bureau, and she began her four-year term on January 1, 2023. “We need to deliver affordable, trusted, and meaningful connectivity to all,” she said after the vote.
Sources
- ITU History: 1865 – 1890s
- From the telegraph to digital: a glimpse into ITU's story (UN Today, Neil Macdonald)
- US candidate elected to lead UN telecoms agency (Associated Press)
