World Telecommunication Day and Information Society Day 2020: History and Importance

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is celebrated every year on May 17. The purpose is to help raise awareness of the possibilities the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies. The day was formerly called World Telecommunications Day, but in November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society called upon the UN General Assembly to declare May 17 as World Information Society Day. Since then, the day came to be known as World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) after 2005.

May 17 marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union. This happened when the first international telegraph convention was signed in Paris on the 17th of May 1865. The event was formally instituted in 1973 in Malaga-Torremolinos, Spain, at the ITU plenipotentiary conference. Currently, a large part of telecommunication revolves around  internet through which lives have changed for the better. From banking to social networking, shopping everything is made easy within a blink of an eye.