The Governorate represents Vatican City State at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24)

Strategic importance of new technologies

A Vatican City State Delegation will participate in the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, (WTSA-24) from 15 to 24 October, and in the Global Standard Symposium (GSS-24) on 14 October. Both will take place in New Delhi. It will be an opportunity to evaluate developments in the technological, normative and organizational aspects of Vatican telecommunications. The WTSA and the GSS are organized by the ITU-T, that is, by the International Telecommunication Union -- Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, the ITU section responsible for regulating telephone and telegraphic telecommunications. We spoke about this with Mr. Luigi Salimbeni, Deputy Director of the Directorate of Telecommunications and Information Systems of the Governorate of Vatican City State, who will take part in the global Assembly.

You have accumulated a large amount of experience since working with the Internet Office of the Holy See, a consistent progress that has brought about significant changes.

I consider myself fortunate to have experienced all the important technological developments in the field of telecommunications, from a professional point of view. When I first began working in this sector, telephony was analogue and the internet had just started. As for mobile phones, people had only just started to talk about them. Even the regulatory framework that oversees telecommunication in Europe was profoundly different from the competitive liberalized market, we are now used to. The scenario literally changed before my eyes and this provided me with a unique opportunity for professional growth.

With your experience and your responsibilities, your participation in the annual works of the ITU in the international arena, is particularly relevant. Can you summarize what the ITU does exactly.

The field of telecommunications is a very special ecosystem in which completely different technologies and services co-exist, and in which there are evolutionary jumps, created by strategies of individual states and by interests of the industry. In essence ITU’s role is to guide the development of telecommunications towards objectives aimed at mutually agreed objectives, shared by all the countries in the world, so that all services can work effectively, efficiently using resources, for the benefit of everyone in the world, not just rich or developed countries.

Vatican City State has been a member of the International Telecommunication Union from the very start, since Vatican City State and the ITU are almost the same age. Ever since the birth of the State in 1929, it was clear that telephones and radio (television had not yet been invented), as well as the postal system were fundamental to all States, but in particular to a very small State like the Vatican, that had the task of ensuring that the Pope could make the voice of the Church heard by all the people in the world.

When was the first time that Vatican City State participated in an international conference?

In 1932, the State participated in the first International Conference of Radio and Telecommunications Bodies, which established the ITU, by fusing the International Telegraph Union and the International Radiotelegraph Union. Vatican City State’s role in these conferences was already very active. For example, documents from the 1938 ITU Conference in Cairo, reveal that Vatican City State’s delegation was decisively opposed to a proposal put forth by some countries, which had the aim of permanently assigning time slots for the use of short waves in long distance transmissions. In effect, this would have led to a situation in which more developed countries would have made requests for all available time slots, and the other countries would have had to ask their permission to transmit. Instead, the Vatican delegation proposed regulating the management of transmission times on the basis of bilateral and multilateral agreements between interested countries. This was the basis of all the coordination procedures that are currently still in use, ensuring that everyone has the possibility of providing long distance broadcasting services without reciprocal interferences.

Since then, Vatican State has always participated in ITU conferences, contributing to defining international rules that regulate telecommunications and affirming its right to use and manage its own telecommunications.

On the basis of what you have said, Vatican City State’s presence in the international arena is significant for Vatican telecommunications. Where will the next ITU conference be held?

Ever since it was established, ITU has expanded and defined its areas of action, organizing itself into three sectors: the first, known as ITU-R, deals specifically with radio communications; the second, ITU-T, deals with the standardization of telecommunication systems, as for example the characteristics of fiber optics; the third, ITU-D, has as its objective the development and expansion of the use of telecommunications technologies, in particular in developing countries. Each of these sectors periodically organizes an international conference to make the most important decisions. Every four years, the ITU organizes a conference known as “Plenipotentiary”, which brings together all member countries to discuss and make decisions regarding issues of strategic importance for global telecommunications.

In 2022, for example the last Plenipotentiary Conference took place in Bucharest; last year instead, there was the Assembly of the ITU-R sector, the World Radiocommunication Conference, which assigned the orbital position of a communications satellite to Vatican City State. This year, it’s ITU-T’s turn. The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly will meet in New Delhi in October 2024.