History of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

History of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Author: Gabriele Balbi

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-06-08

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 3110669773

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This book focuses on the history of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), from its origins in the mid-19th century to nowadays. ITU was the first international organization ever and still plays a crucial role in managing global telecommunications today. Putting together some of the most relevant scholars in the field of transnational communications, the book covers the history of ITU from 1865 to digital times in a truly global perspective, taking into account several technologies like the telegraph, the telephone, cables, wireless, radio, television, satellites, mobile phone, the internet and others. The main goal is to identify the long-term strategies of regulation and the techno-diplomatic manoeuvres taken inside ITU, from convincing the majority of the nations to establish the official seat of the Telegraph Union bureau in Switzerland in the 1860s, to contrasting the multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance (supported by US and ICANN). History of the International Telecommunication Union is a trans-disciplinary text and can be interesting for scholars and students in the fields of telecommunications, media, international organizations, transnational communication, diplomacy, political economy of communication, STS, and others. It has the ambition to become a reference point in the history of ITU and, at the same time, just the fi rst comprehensive step towards a longer, inter-technological, political and cultural history of transnational communications to be written in the future.


Global Telecommunications

Global Telecommunications

Author: Raymond Akwule

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-22

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1003820166

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Global Telecommunications (1992) clarifies the complex, politically-charged arena of international telecommunications. By understanding both the demands created by dynamic Western countries in the grips of deregulation and the needs of developing nations, readers acquire an appreciation for the challenges facing global telecommunications users, developers and policymakers. This book stresses the growing need for sophisticated management of satellite and communication resources. The emerging global information society is propelled by technological innovations, and these developments are shaping the way the world’s population receives information.


Telecommunications and Empire

Telecommunications and Empire

Author: Jill Hills

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2023-12-11

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 0252047125

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Jill Hills picks up from her pathbreaking study The Struggle for Control of Global Communication: The Formative Century to continue her examination of the political, technological, and economic forces at work in the global telecommunications market from World War II to the World Trade Organization agreement of 1997. In the late twentieth century, focus shifted from the creation and development of global communication markets to their intense regulation. The historical framework behind this control--where the market was regulated, by what institution, controlled by what power, and to whose benefit--masterfully complements Hills's analysis of power relations within the global communications arena. Hills documents attempts by governments to direct, replace, and bypass international telecommunications institutions. As she shows, the results have offered indirect control over foreign domestic markets, government management of private corporations, and government protection of its own domestic communication market. Hills reveals that the motivation behind these powerful, regulatory efforts on person-to-person communication lies in the unmatched importance of communication in the world economy. As ownership of communications infrastructure becomes more valuable, governments have scrambled to shape international guidelines. Hills provides insight into struggles between U.S. policymakers and the rest of the world, illustrating the conflict between a growing telecommunications empire and sovereign states that are free to implement policy changes. Freshly detailing the interplay between U.S. federal regulation and economic power, Hills fosters a deep understanding of contemporary systems of power in global communications.