Telco Origins – Part 3

I know it’s been a lot longer than I’d originally planned but I wanted to get back the history of telecommunications.  I would have done so sooner but I was on the phone.  :-)  Speaking of Mr. Bell’s grand invention, once the phone had been firmly established by 1876, the first telephone switchboard was installed in Connecticut two years later in 1878.  Call volume had obviously increased, most likely due to the pioneers of telemarketing.  This was about the time that the first appearance of formal telephone numbers, and directories listing those addresses, were also made available to the public.

By the early 1880’s there were a number of small telephone exchanges throughout the USA and Europe but caller range was clearly limited.  Because of the crude technology that limited connection distance to about 100 miles, the Bell company focused on building and selling equipment to service rich people and businesses.  The first long distance connection, between New York and Boston, was approximately 300 miles long and came online in 1884.  All calls were required to be connected by a third party operator.  Had tech acronyms been popular back then they would have termed it H.O.T. (Human Operated Transfer) calling.

Bell’s patents ran out at the turn of the century leading to greater competition and the rise of several thousand independent phone companies.  Little did anyone realize at the time that, despite so many new players entering the market, the stage was being set for the start of the largest monopoly of them all – AT&T.  But first, we need to talk about a fellow named Marconi and this little invention of his called the radio.  More next time….