The WRCs, which take place every 3 or 4 years, are responsible for revising the Radio Regulations (RR), an international treaty signed by Portugal, governing technical and regulatory aspects of radio spectrum use and satellite orbits. The Conferences also address issues of global interest, provide instructions to the Radio Regulations Board (RRB) and the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) and review their activities. They also decide on the issues to be studied by the Radiocommunications Assembly (RA) and Study Groups (SG) of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) in the context of preparing for future conferences.
The ITU, a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) for telecommunications and information and communication technologies (ICT), is headquartered in Geneva; it brings together 193 member states and over 700 sector members and Associates (sector private), working towards the development of telecommunications networks and services. ANACOM, according its assigned powers and responsibilities, takes part in various activities of the ITU-R, in order to monitor the activities of radio spectrum management and planning. ANACOM takes part in the WRCs representing Portugal.