The annual report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to the Economic and Social Council for the year 1953 stated that considerable progress had been made by the various countries during the year in developing or modernizing existing telecommunication networks, within the limits of technical and scientific progress and of credit available for investment in communications. The grid of telegraph and telephone circuits criss-crossing frontiers had been considerably tightened up and reinforced during 1953, important research work had been carried on, certain practical steps had been taken with a view to providing the public with semi-automatic international telephone service and a direct international telegraph subscribers' service, and the national broadcasting networks and television transmittal services had been expanded and improved. While the credit for these achievements, the report stated, was above all due to the specialists, no extension of telecommunication networks would have been possible without the intervention of the organs of ITU in the coordination of projects and in organizing cooperation between the various countries. The report contained information on ITU membership and on the organization and operation of the permanent organs of ITU, as well as a detailed summary of ITU activities during the year 1953, its relations with the United Nations and other international organizations, and its budgets for 1953 and 1954, for which the overall figures were respectively 6,225,100 and 6,367,500 Swiss francs, exclusive of United Nations technical assistance funds.