Why is the ITU significant? What is it?

The ITU is the oldest UN organization—far older than the UN itself. Its original purpose when it was established in 1865 was to standardize a developing telegraph system. Many nations were working on what was then state-of-the-art communications technology, but they took divergent technical paths and didn't communicate with one another about their progress.

Cross-border difficulties

Malcolm Johnson, the ITU's deputy secretary general, created "challenges" in the cross-border functioning of the telegraph service in Europe. He continues, "In fact, operators had to type out the telegraph on one side of the border, travel across to the operator on the other side, and then start tapping out the message.

Varied membership... and a conflict over the cold war?

According to Ambassador Manley, a group with such a broad but highly technical mandate needs specialists in addition to UN officials. Because of this, the ITU differs significantly from other UN organizations in terms of its membership. In addition to the 193 member states of the UN, the ITU has close to 900 representatives from the IT sector and academia. I'll get back to that plenipotentiary in a moment.

Internet in the future

But other journalists are portraying the Washington against Moscow election as a battle for the future of the internet, probably because they, like me, haven't paid much attention to the ITU until now. There have been doomsday headlines claiming there is "a war for totalitarian control of the internet" and that "if Russia prevails in the vote, the world wide web as we recognize it will be no more."

Internet divide

Additionally, Ambassador Manley said this election "is not about the United States vs Russia." According to him, the ITU's vow to close the digital gap is its most significant challenge. As commonplace as drinking a cup of coffee in the morning for many of us, utilizing the internet is still not available to 40% of the world's population, the bulk of whom reside in developing nations.