Today in 1865, the first International Telegraph Convention was signed in Paris by the 20 founding members, and the International Telegraph Union (ITU) was established to facilitate subsequent amendments to this initial agreement. 

Today, the ITU is the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technology issues, and its membership includes 192 Member States and more than 700 Sector Members and Associates. The ITU published recently a concrete list of indicators to monitor the 10 World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) targets, which range from connecting villages, schools, and health centers to developing online content and providing people with access to information technology. The ITU collects and posts detailed statistics on information and communications technologies worldwide. For example:

• The total number of SMS sent globally tripled between 2007 and 2010, from an estimated 1.8 trillion to a staggering 6.1 trillion. In other words, close to 200,000 text messages are sent every second.
• Assuming an average cost of $0.07 per SMS, in 2010 SMS traffic is generating an estimated $812,000 every minute (or around $14,000 every second).