The 1992 Additional Plenipotentiary Conference (APP-92) held in Geneva revised the main instruments of the Union and made substantial changes to its structure and working methods. In particular, it introduced a new way to organize world conferences devoted to radiocommunication matters.

Prior to the APP-92, World Administrative Radio Conferences (WARC) were, in most cases, conducted to cover specific agenda items concerning particular radio services. However, from 1992 onward, the new ITU Constitution required convening regular World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC) once every two years with the agenda open to as many questions as necessary.

The 1993 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-93) was the first to occur within this new legal environment in the field of international radio spectrum management. According to the decision of APP-92 formulated in Resolution 9, WRC-93 should be convened to make recommendations to the Council concerning the agenda for the 1995 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-95) and the preliminary agenda for the 1997 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-97).

The agenda for WRC-93 was rather limited and the Council decided that one week would be sufficient to implement it. However, in practice this time frame proved to be quite short and resulted in some evening and night sessions as was a tradition during this period in ITU’s history. Nevertheless the two draft agendas were agreed upon and the Final Acts were signed by all the participating delegations.

Looking now at this small booklet containing the WRC-93 Final Acts I feel very proud that I was elected to chair this historical conference which opened a new era in the work of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector.

​Text contributed by Valery Timofeev (Chair of the WRC 1993)