ITU VIDEO: RA-12 Plenary 19th January 2012 - THE LEAP SECOND

The ITU Radiocommunication Assembly has reached an important decision to defer the development of a continuous time standard while recognizing the concerns of countries that use the current system of the leap second in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The decision has been reached to ensure that all the technical options have been fully addressed. These studies will involve further discussions within the ITU membership and other organizations who have an interest in this matter and will be referred to the next Radiocommunication Assembly and World Radiocommunication Conference scheduled for 2015.

Adjustments made in one second steps, known as 'leap seconds', have been implemented since 1972 to compensate for variations in the speed of the earth's rotation within the framework of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ITU;
• Leap
• second;
• Vincent
• Meens;
• International
• Telecommunication
• Union;
• UN;
• Radiocommunications;
• RA;
• UTC;