It is a pleasure to present to you the ITU Handbook for the Collection of Administrative Data on Telecommunications/ICT, produced by the International Telecommunication Union. The Handbook, which contains over 80 internationally agreed indicators to help track global ICT developments, is an important reference document for collecting and analysing data on the telecommunication services sector. It will help countries monitor their progress towards becoming information societies on the basis of international statistical standards, and thus contribute to improving analysis and benchmarking across countries.