International Telecommunication Union

The Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was held in Geneva, September 29–November 29, 1958, to revise the regulations in telephony and telegraphy adopted in Paris in 1949. By a large majority the Conference adopted the principle that the Telephone Regulations should be world-wide in scope. The Telegraph Regulations, however, were still to include provisions applicable only to Europe, with reference to rates in the European system, the phototelegraph service, and different rebates for press telegrams. The three resolutions concerning telegraphy which the Conference decided to include in the regulations which it adopted instructed the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) to study the possibility: 1) of making the provisions relative to the phototelegraph service world-wide in scope; 2) of modifying international alphabet No. 2 so that at least two additional signals from the figure case would be available to administrations or recognized private operating agencies for the needs of their internal services; and 3) of removing difficulties which still existed for the operational services and for the users in the counting of words. The Conference also made certain detailed changes in the Telegraph Regulations.