 and the Regional Administrative Radio Conference (RARC) are space services; and informatic systems. held at irregular intervals, as required. These approve changes to the For frequency allocation purposes the world is divided into three regulations in their respective fields, drawing up the ITU's binding regions. Region 1 covers Europe, Middle East, Africa and the regulations. USSR. Region 2 covers the Americas, Canada and Greenland. The WATTC establishes principles relating to the operation of Region 3 covers the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. international telecommunication public services. It sets rules ap- The IFRB records the frequency assignments of all radio services plicable to administrations and RPOA. and the associated orbital positions for space stations used throug- The WATTC meetings started in 1850, the last one, WATTC 88 hout the world, after regulatory and technical examination, accord- being held in Melbourne, Australia over 28 November to 9 Decem- ing to the provisions of the Radio Regulations and International ber 1988. This was the 25th general telecommunication conference treaty adapted by the members of the ITU. These records are kept to be held. Over 500 representatives from governments and tele- in the Master Frequency Register, which gives it formal interna- communication organisations attended and over 1000 proposals for tional recognition and protection. This register contains well over a the new treaty were considered. The final acts were signed by 112 million entries. countries on 9 December. Central to Radio Regulations is the International Table of Fre- The WARC revises regulations governing use of radio frequency quency Allocations. This allocates all the frequency bands between spectrum and the geostationary satellite orbit. The RARC deals with 9kHz and 275GHz. In each region a band may be allocated exclu- specific radio communication questions of a regional nature. sively to a service or shared between services. When shared the The last WARC was held in Spain starting on 