Tug of WARC [electronic resource]

English

1992

The World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) ended on March 3, 1992, having given techno-diplomats from around the world many new technologies to argue about. On most issues, the conference divided into 2 camps. Innovative proposals backed by the US ran into resistance from a lobby of 33 countries in Europe, the Conference of European Postal and Telecommunications Administrations. The poor countries sided with the US on some issues, Europe on others; most countries in Eastern Europe voted with their western neighbors. The issues that most exercised the conference were satellite mobile telephony, terrestial mobile telephony, satellite sound broadcasting, and shortwave radio. The WARC also bestowed new spectrum allocation on high-definition television and airplane telephones. To make future conferences friendlier and less complicated, mini-Warcs might be held every 2 years on a narrower range of subjects, allowing a quicker response to technological change.

Access restricted to onsite users [ITU]

The Economist Vol. 322, no. 7749 (1992) : p. 89-90