In 1868, a second International Telegraph Conference was convened to revise the International Telegraph Convention, the tariffs and the Regulations for international service. A major decision of this plenipotentiary conference was the establishment of a permanent secretariat, the “International Bureau of Telegraph Administrations,” entrusted with administrative duties: gathering and disseminating technical information, publishing rate (tariff) tables, collecting statistics and publishing a journal on telegraphy matters (the Journal télégraphique). The Bureau was located in Bern, Switzerland, and began operating on 1 January 1869. It was often referred to as the International Bureau or simply as the Berne Bureau.
The Vienna Telegraph Conference also extended the authority of the Telegraph Convention to private telegraph operators in member states. As a result of this decision, the United Kingdom acceded to the Convention[1].
[1] The United Kingdom had not been invited to the first International Telegraph Conference in Paris, 1865, because its telegraph network was privately owned. |