The world’s last telegram was sent in India on July 14th. It was destined for a location less than 10 miles from its origination point but took nearly 9 days to arrive.
The world’s last telegram was sent in India on July 14th. It was destined for a location less than 10 miles from its origination point.
It took nearly 9 days to arrive.
The very first telegram sent in India in 1850 got to its destination – almost 25 miles away – in less than two and a half hours.
The delay was said to have occurred because the diminished infrastructure of the communication means couldn’t meet the demand of all those wanting to get in on the historic last day.
For quite some time, the Central Telegraph Office had only been sending 30 or so telegrams a day. On the day the technology was to be retired, there were over 400 going out.
In the telegram’s golden age in India – the mid 1980’s – approximately 60 million messages were sent and received each year. Then, there were 45 thousand offices.
Not long ago, the Indian telecom company BSNL decided it was no longer financially viable to offer the service as daily transmissions only numbered about 5 thousand. The annual losses were estimated at 23 million dollars.
Western Union in the United States abandoned the technology 7 years ago.
