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World Telecommunication Day 62

Posted by CowboyNeal from the happy-holidays dept.
Paul McCord writes "The International Telecommunication Union is asking everyone to join in for World Telecommunication Day 2003, Saturday, May 17. The ITU suggests that this is 'an excellent opportunity to launch public campaigns and advocacy activities in favour of greater access to [information and communication technology] and how the work of ITU helps all of the world's people to communicate.' It may be a bit late to join in on some of the official activities, but awareness if nothing else will help to serve the day's purpose. See the WTD2003 site or this Google News query for information, links."
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World Telecommunication Day More

World Telecommunication Day

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  • A little notice? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @10:32AM (#5979843)
    Nice to see that Slashdot remains a relevant news source.
    • What's funny is that whilst Americans missed out on most of the World Telecommunication Day due to the lateness of the article, here in Australia (AEST) the article was posted 28 minutes into the 18th, a full day later!
      • To be fair to myself, I posted the article for submission on the 16th. Not really early by any means, but it took Slashdot over twelve hours to post the article as-is. I wonder what caused the delay...

        I only posted it because I read of the "holiday" on the UN web site, and I realized that I knew nothing about it, so I figured most Americans didn't. In any case, I acknowleged that the story was late getting to the public, but at least we might be prepared next year.

        (And let's not underestimate the oversh

      • I doubt that most Americans could care less about World Telecommunication Day unless it gives them an excuse to stay home from work.

        This was not intended to be a troll, I'm an American. This is how my co-workers think. Ya dig?

  • Hmm (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ergonal ( 609484 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @10:36AM (#5979867)
    Here in .au, there's a story [zdnet.com.au] about plans to add submarine cable protection zones. Do other countries already have similar restrictions in place? I would be interested to know. Thanks. (Submarine cable is related to international telecommunications, so I'm not entirely Off-topic!)

  • Day taken! (Score:3, Funny)

    by gspr ( 602968 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @10:38AM (#5979872)
    Sorry folks, May 17th is taken! It's Norway's national day, and we don't wanna share it with some telecom day! Grr! :)

  • Celebrate World DRM Day 2003! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America are asking consumers to join in for World Digital Rights Management Day 2003, Saturday, May 17. The MPAA and RIAA suggest that this is 'an excellent opportunity to launch public campaigns and advocacy activities in favour of greater access to [secure and protected digital media] and how the work of the MPAA and RIAA allows all of the world's consumers to better enjoy quality entertainment products.' It may be a bit l

  • This is great and all (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    But don't forget, infact remind yourself often, that there are more telephones in new york city than there are in the whole of Africa

    Long live global capitalism then eh?
    • Well... The Real meaning of Global Capitalism is... One Gigantic Company thats Capitalizes on the globe because they have amonopoly, and people that think they can compete get shut out due to Patent/Copyright volations and when that doesn't work simply buy them out.. and if they can't be bought.. Slander them and launch a PR campain to disuade the the common public of thier services/reliability.

      Capitalism is where the money is :)
    • Maybe because in the USA capitalism is allowed to thrive, while in africa it is supressed by dictators?

  • Better idea (Score:4, Funny)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @10:42AM (#5979897)
    How about all the telcos let us make free calls anywhere all day to celebrate it.
    • Assuming "monthly fee" is a viable alternative to paying by the call, MCI's Neighborhood is pretty decent for that. $50/month for all instate and state-to-state calls. International's damn near free too. Better call lots, though.
      • Not quite as nice as Vonage's 39.99 unlimited local and long distace plan though. Granted you have to have a broadband connection, but you don't get that free with MCI's plan either.

        Depending on your broadband carrier, the $10 or $20 difference may go a long way towards paying for that broadband connection.

        -Rusty
    • I like that, but instead, how about we all just make phone calls at the same time? Show that we appreaciate them by melting their switches.
  • can we start off by banning cell phones in public places ?
    • Hate to say it dude... I get paid to carry a Cell phone 24/7... You saying I can't ever watch a movie in a theater when I respect Silence in movie theaters?(Turn on Vibrate and wait till I have left the theater to start talking on the phone)... I think your just talking about inconsiderate idiots that piss everyone off... and They should all be shot on site :)
  • Is this sanctioned by the official, self proclaimed, voice of the workers [workers.org]?

    When we all have telecommunications like North Korea, Cuba and soon-to-be Venezuela then the workers [workers.org] struggle will be complete!
  • I live in Ottawa, Home of Nortel, which before telecom died was one of the bigger telecom companies. Now this city is filled with empty Nortel buildings, and all us geeks have to rely on something other than telecom to find us jobs. Oh well. I knew it would never last, Telecom doesn't interest me in the least
    • I live in Ottawa, Home of Nortel, which before telecom died was one of the bigger telecom companies.

      Nice to meet you, I live in Reston, VA, home of another of your empty buildings, along with plenty of empty Teleglobe buildings scattered about.

      However, Nextel has a nice "new" building, right down the street from all of AOL's IP addresses (on Sunrise Valley Dr) and along the same road as several Sprint facilities.

      Also, the defense contractor that I work for is taking over one of the many empty MCI buildi

    • Wellllll... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Faust7 ( 314817 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @11:25AM (#5980077) Homepage
      Telecom as a whole isn't dead. Long-distance is what's dead, thanks in large part to the Internet. AT&T and MCI realized this, and with the help of some recent laws began poking into the local service market, reselling service over the local companies' lines. Local-LD Combo packages like AT&T's One Rate and MCI's Neighborhood are a real threat to ILECs, and now both of the big'uns are also branching into DSL territory (I believe MCI literally just started offering DSL in some states), ensuring their corporate relevance.

  • field day? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Lxy ( 80823 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @11:08AM (#5980003) Journal
    I'm surprised that the ARRL isn't jumping all over this. I'd think many ham clubs would want to have field days and demonstrate free portable telecommunications. Of course, it's kinda late now. Maybe next year :-)

  • Every Day is World Telecommunication Day for me! (Score:3, Funny)

    by vtechpilot ( 468543 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @11:11AM (#5980017)
    IAATM (I am a telemarketer) and I have probably reached more places around the globe and woken people up early on Saturday morning today than any of you will in your entire lives! mwahahaha!

    (Please don't mod me as a troll. I'm sorry)

  • article incase of slashdotting (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Helping all of the world's people to communicate
    Today's telecommunication world would not be what it is without the untiring efforts of the ITU to help countries harmonize their national policies, bridge technological differences, foster interconnectivity and interoperability of systems on a global scale. Anytime, anyone makes a phone call, checks their email, watches television or surfs the Web, they benefit from the work of the world's first universal organization: ITU. For over 135 years, ITU has been he

  • ICANN (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pchown ( 90777 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @11:25AM (#5980074)
    There are those [theregister.co.uk] who would like to see the ITU take over from ICANN. I'm not sure that the ITU is the perfect organisation to do it. It is bureaucratic and is a group of telcos rather than including wider Internet interests. However, I do agree that it would be a lot better than what we have at the moment.

    Perhaps World Telecommunications Day would be a good opportunity for the ITU to put this agenda forward.

    • There are those who would like to see the ITU take over from ICANN. I'm not sure that the ITU is the perfect organisation to do it. It is bureaucratic and is a group of telcos rather than including wider Internet interests. However, I do agree that it would be a lot better than what we have at the moment.

      I for one could not imagine anything worse.

      The ITU takes every available opportunity to put itself between enabling technologies and the people who could benefit from them.

      Here's what the intern

      • Oh, come now, how bad can they be:

        =========
        [tom@cougaarforge tom]$ telnet www.itu.int 80
        Trying 156.106.192.163...
        Connected to www.itu.int.
        Escape character is '^]'.
        get / http / 1.0

        HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
        Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 20:25:29 GMT
        Server: Apache/1.3.26 (Unix) mod_jk/1.2.1 PHP/4.0.6
        Connection: close
        Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1

        400 Bad Request

        Bad Request
        Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.

        The request line contained invalid characters following the protoc

  • heh (Score:1)

    by GigsVT ( 208848 ) *
    The ITU suggests that this is 'an excellent opportunity to launch public campaigns and advocacy activities in favour of greater access to [information and communication technology]

    The same ITU that refuses to drop the Morse Code requirements for ham radio licenses under 30Mhz? :)
    • This may change this year at the conference. Not that I really care either way. My code sucks right now, maybe 5-7 wpm, code is o.k. but I'm not really as into it as some are. Eventually they'll drop it though I think. Make the written tests harder, code is the only mode they do a hands on test for which seems a bit rediculous today. PSK31 is really taking off though....

    • Code (Score:1)

      by n9hmg ( 548792 )
      While I agree that it's probably time to drop that requirement, I do think there should be a seperate code endorsement giving access to narrow slices (that's all it needs) of each band, kind of like archery and muzzleloader hunting seasons.
      My code sucks, but it still always gives me a thrill to get through clearly when SSB is just a wispy modulation on the noise.

  • Telecommunications day? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dacarr ( 562277 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @12:17PM (#5980345) Homepage Journal
    I'll wait for Field Day next month, thankyouverymuch.

    73 DE KE6ISF

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