World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

Over the past ten years, who among you has sent a real paper letter in the mail - not official, but personal, to friends or relatives? Surely, there are very few. Perhaps someone is sending postcards as part of the Postcrossing project. But this does not change the essence: we have long ago, finally and irrevocably switched to electrical communications. Telecommunication satellites plow open spaces of near-earth orbits, cities are packed with cellular communication antennas, the ocean floor is striated with armored fiber optic backbone cables. We send dozens and hundreds of e-mails, messages in instant messengers and SMS every day. Every year, the population of the planet spends billions of man-hours, sitting out on these your internet and absorbing petabytes of information. Congratulations: we live in an information society, and telecommunications (or telecommunications) are our everything.


Delegates to the first conference of the International Telegraph Union

For the first time on May 17, it became relevant to communications exactly 150 years ago. In 1865, on this day in Paris, representatives from 20 countries signed an international telegraph convention. Russia was among the participants of the Convention. At that time, the only type of communication in which information was transmitted using electrical signals was the telegraph. On the same day, May 17, the International Telegraph Union was created.
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Map of telegraph lines in Europe, 1856

Progress did not stand still, and a few decades later the name of the organization was outdated. Radio and telephone became the usual means of communication, and in 1925 a public demonstration of a television was held in London. Therefore, in 1932, the organization was renamed the International Telecommunication Union .

However, more than 100 years have passed since the creation of the ITU, before this date was given holiday status. It happened in 1969. At first, it was simply called World Telecommunication Day. But the progress of the obstinate does not stop, and in 2006 the holiday was renamed with an incredible effort of will, adding mention of the information society. It was necessary to finally admit the obvious and somehow celebrate the transformation that took place each year. So congratulations to those who are related to communication, telecom and information society. That is - congratulations to all!