TheInternational Telecommunication Union (ITU), in its InternationalRadio Regulations, divides the world into threeITU regions for the purposes of managing the globalradiospectrum. Each region has its own set offrequency allocations, the main reason for defining the regions.

• Region 1 comprisesEurope,Africa, theCommonwealth of Independent States,Mongolia, and theMiddle East west of thePersian Gulf, includingIraq.
  • The western boundary is defined by Line B and the eastern boundary is defined by Line A, except that all territory ofIran is excluded, and all territory of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Ukraine and the area to the north of Russia which lies between lines A and C is included.
• Region 2 covers theAmericas includingGreenland, and some of the easternPacific Islands.
  • The eastern boundary is defined by Line B and the western boundary is defined by Line C.
• Region 3 contains most of non-FSUAsia east of and includingIran, and most ofOceania.
  • The western boundary is defined by Line A and the eastern boundary is defined by Line C.

Lines:

• Line A is a line running from theNorth Pole alongmeridian 40° East of Greenwich toparallel 40° North; thence bygreat circle arc to the intersection ofmeridian 60° East and theTropic of Cancer; thence along the meridian 60° East to the South Pole.^[1]
• Line B is a line running from theNorth Pole alongmeridian 10° West ofGreenwich to its intersection withparallel 72° North; thence bygreat circle arc to the intersection ofmeridian 50° West andparallel 40° North; thence by great circle arc to the intersection ofmeridian 20° West andparallel 10° South; thence along meridian 20° West to theSouth Pole.^[2]
• Line C is a line running from theNorth Pole bygreat circle arc to the intersection of parallel 65° 30` North with the international boundary in theBering Strait; thence by great circle arc to the intersection ofmeridian 165° East of Greenwich andparallel 50° North; thence by great circle arc to the intersection ofmeridian 170° West andparallel 10° North; thence along parallel 10° North to its intersection withmeridian 120° West; thence along meridian 120° West to the South Pole.^[3]

The definition of theEuropean Broadcasting Area uses some of the definitions of Region 1.

For convenience the regions are further divided into a total of 90 zones. While often following political boundaries, in more remote land and sea areas these are often defined to be roughly equal in size and so can have very low populations. As examples,Antarctica is divided into seven zones, and in one Pacific Ocean zone the only land area is tinyMinami Torishima.^[4] For certain awards and contestsamateur radio operators may attempt to contact as many zones as possible.

• 2006 map showing the three ITU regions and the three lines that define the borders (along with an extra line)
• Region definitions as specified in Article 5 of the ITU Radio Regulations

• International Telecommunication Union

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• Short description is different from Wikidata