Many of you have asked what I am doing now. About 6 months ago, President Clinton appointed me U.S. Ambassador to a global treaty conference on telecommunications, specifically, the World Radiocommunication Conference, to be held in Istanbul, Turkey during May, 2000.

I didn't know what it was, either, when I first heard about the WRC. Turns out, it has to do with virtually all of our communications systems. The Conference meets every 3 to 4 years to allocate radio spectrum-radio waves that are used for everything from AM-FM radios to satellite communications to radars. It also determines which technologies or services can share broad bands of these radio waves.

Why does this matter? Radio waves carry vast amounts of communications, both voice and data. Our cell phones use these waves. Sit down to watch your favorite TV program that is produced, for example, in New York City. The program is digitized and sent to a satellite facility in New Jersey via microwaves (radio waves). From there, it's beamed to a satellite, which, in turn, sends it to a cable head in Denver. All this is transmitted over radio waves. Next, your cable company picks up those radio signals and sends you the program over your TV cable.

The worldwide flight navigation and communications systems could not exist without radio waves. They keep planes separated in the air and guide them to their destinations. When you saw the photos of missiles hitting targets so precisely in the Gulf War, radio waves carried the guidance instructions and the mapping data to those missiles.

When an American pilot was shot down in Bosnia, the US Global Positioning System tracked him via a receiver he carried and enabled US troops to rescue him. Today, backpackers, truckers and many drivers carry global positioning receivers so they won't get lost. This guidance system depends on radio signals beamed from satellites.

You're at the gas pump and you slide your credit card in the slot so you can fill up your car. Radio waves carry the data from your credit card to your bank's database and beam back approval to take your card. These are just a few examples of radio wave uses.

Much more is coming our way. Soon, police cars will have equipment to transmit fingerprints and mug shots to a central database, making it possible to identify a suspect instantly. Your cell phone, if you haven't changed already, is about to become a data handset, able to link you to the Internet, email and telephone. The Japanese have bought over 5 million of these handsets in the last year.

The plans and technologies for using radio waves are vast and exciting. The problem is, the usable radio waves are limited. Demand far exceeds the supply. Consequently, there is a great need to allocate these waves fairly. Hence, the World Radiocommunication Conference.

Because radio waves are global, the general principles for their use are contained in a treaty that is changed and renewed at each WRC. Nearly 190 countries participate. While each country can decide the specific ways it wants to apply these principles, this treaty means that our companies can count on having a worldwide structure, essential when you're investing billions of dollars in infrastructure, equipment development and new technology.

There is fierce competition among equipment manufacturers, service providers, broadcasters, the military and the thousands of companies that use the multitude of infrastructures and technologies involving radio waves. Each must design its equipment or service for the specific characteristics of each band of radio waves, so it's critical to know which ones you can use. Their battles are played out before and during the WRC.

In short, then, my job is to negotiate, on behalf of the United States, a treaty with 188 other countries, that ensures our industry fair access and opportunity to serve markets around the world. At the same time, we must maintain the vital government uses that protect commercial and military aircraft and national security. The issues are fascinating and complex. The results will determine our course in the huge and rapidly changing field of communications.