One of the key annual events of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has just turned 50. ITU Telecom has evolved over the years to reflect a rapidly evolving industry ecosystem. But international cooperation to connect the world remains at the core of the conference and exhibition series.
The first-ever Telecom, featuring a high-level conference combined with a major international telecommunications exhibition, happened in June 1971.
World TELECOM 71, as it was called, launched a regular series of key global gatherings of the ITU family. Governments, industry, academia and international organizations came together to trade insights, showcase and share technological innovations, exchange knowledge – and work together to ensure everyone, everywhere could benefit from technology’s enormous potential.
The past half century has seen rapid advances in telecommunications, including the emergence of unprecedented technologies, sector-wide privatization, and new facets of regulation. New markets, competitors, and partnerships have made the industry, along with the world of ITU, look very different today than they did in the early 1970s.
The key areas of ITU’s work back then, as the name of the event implies, were telephony and telecommunications. Telecom’s focus has since shifted, in line with the industry, to information and communication technologies (ICTs), reflecting the irreversible convergence of two separate sectors. Digital technologies and services are now at the forefront, with the annual Telecom event provisionally rebranded since last year as ITU Digital World.
But even as ITU’s membership has diversified and the scope of Telecom events has broadened, much has stayed the same.