Bell Launches Telephone Service: Communication Transformed
Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated the world's first commercial telephone service on June 20, 1877, in Hamilton, Ontario, connecting the city to Bell's family home in Brantford, eight miles away. This was not Bell's first demonstration (the famous "Mr. Watson, come here" call occurred on March 10, 1876) but the first commercial application of the technology. Bell had offered to sell his patents to Western Union for $100,000 in 1876, but the telegraph company's president dismissed the telephone as a "toy." Within two years, there were 150,000 telephones in the United States, and Western Union attempted to enter the market using Thomas Edison's competing design. Bell sued and won. By 1886, over 150,000 people in the US owned telephones. Today there are over 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide.
June 20, 1877
149 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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