The significance of creating a global telecommunications network that is sufficiently cheap to the end user is pivotal in the overall matrix that will allow advanced technology to continue development. The global population is the only means by which that it is possible to meet the necessary commercial factors which allow access to the vast sums of money necessary to sustain technological development and thereby growth. In this instance being cheap does not equate to a lowering of standards. Low rates equate to a huge income to the commercial industry via a widening of the global community base that include peoples and regions of the world that until now would never have considered contact with others living outside their local environment using the telecommunications networks, simply because call charges would have prohibited this type of contact. The ITU identified this factor early, when the advances in technology that we regularly use today were simply theories.
Educated experience within the ITU saw that a method to improve telecommunications could be harnessed through an escalation of the provision of modern telecommunications to more people. Over the past twenty years an explosive growth within the telecommunications industry identified the unique position that the ITU possessed and prompted its membership to grow to the size that it is today. This includes a private membership that runs in excess of 640 telecommunications, broadcasting and information technology sectors world-wide.
It has been no mean feat for the ITU to achieve the improved telecommunications that the world now enjoys. Advising its membership in a time of the significant transition occurring around the world in the telecommunications theatre is short of amazing. In addition the amazement is likely to continue as even newer technology is unveiled that will require new alliances to be formed in the global telecommunications community that is itself developing, growing and learning.
The next decade is likely to witness the most radical changes to the telecommunications infrastructure that the world has yet experienced as ideas that were once just theories are finally put in place. Ensuring that both the industry and governments continue to work in harmony is a fundamental part of the remit owned by ITU, which is comforting to know as no other organization possesses either the experience or know-how to ensure that whatever needs to be achieved in the areas of telecommunications, whether that be related to videoconferencing or some other form of telecommunications the ITU are present to ensure that the early theories can be put into practice.