 Experiments with radio transmissions started over 175 years ago. In 1895, a Russian professor Alexander Popov sent and received a wireless signal across 600 meters. In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio signal from southwestern England to Newfoundland. In 1906, 29 maritime states signed the first International Radio Telegraph Convention. For more than a century, the radio regulations have been the international treaty governing the global use of radio frequency spectrum. The 1927 Washington Radio Telegraph Conference established the International Radio Consultative Committee, CCIR. At the 1932 Planet Potentiary Conference, the International Telegraph Union was renamed the International Telecommunication Union. Also known as the Space Conference, the radio conference in 1963 had as its main task the allocation of an adequate number of frequencies from outer space. The dramatic rise in demand for frequency assignments since the 1940s caused severe congestion in the lower frequency bands and an evident need for additional frequency bands. The 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference took more than three months to revise the ITU Table of Frequency Allocations. The radio regulations are now revised and updated regularly. ITU World Radio Communication Conferences, WRCs, are at the heart of these updates for existing systems and new technologies, such as fifth generation technologies which will revolutionize communications around the world. For over a hundred years, each WRC has taken important decisions on the enhancement of safety at sea for communication systems, spectrum, radio frequencies, rules and standards. The regular updating of the ITU radio regulations paves the way for new, more innovative ways to connect the world on Earth and in space. The radio regulations are a crucial accelerator towards the achievement of all the UN Sustainable Development Goals.