Deutschland incident (1902)

[1] This station was intended to provide service to maritime traffic, especially vessels approaching New York harbor after making an Atlantic crossing.

[2] This was challenged by the competing companies, which insisted that they had developed non-infringing systems, in addition to the fact that, in countries such as Great Britain and Italy, government policies had given Marconi a practical monopoly in establishing shore stations.

[3] As the ship was beginning a transatlantic crossing to Germany, one of the passengers, Prince Heinrich of Prussia, brother of the German Kaiser, attempted to send a wireless telegram through Nantucket thanking U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt for his recent hospitality.

[5] Although commercial radio communication was only a few years old, the dispute emphasized the need for an international policy to establish ground rules for service requirements.

This was the first international body reviewing radio communication policies, and the subject of requiring interconnection between stations operated by various companies was a major issue addressed by the participants.