Differentiating telephone services drove telephone service growth in Chicago at the beginning of the twentieth century. From 1901 to 1906, the total number of telephones in service grew the equivalent of 23% per year.[1] Within that total, private branch exchange telephones and nickel-in-slot 10-party-line payphones grew 33% and 47% per year respectively. Private branch exchanges … Continue reading differentiating telephone service
The number of telephones in service in the U.S. at the end of each month from 1916 to 1942 show a seasonal slowdown in the telephone business in summer months. At the end of August, the number of telephones was typically 0.6% below trend.[1] As the telephone business picked up in the autumn, deviations from … Continue reading seasonality in the telephone business
By October, 1923, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) was producing a monthly booklet summarizing business conditions in the U.S. The booklet presented movements in macroeconomic indices and described general business conditions by Bell operating company regions. It also highlighted real business activity compared to telephone traffic.[1] The relevant chart from the November, 1925 booklet is … Continue reading early telephone business relatively stable
Variations in average telephone use have been relatively small across more than a century of telephone use. From 1893 to 1913, the number of telephones in many countries around the world increased by more than a factor of ten. The average number of intra-urban telephone conversations per subscriber telephone changed little. For example, the number … Continue reading social constraints on communication technology use
Early in the twentieth century, telephone prevalence in some rural U.S. states far exceeded that in major cities around the world. For example, Nebraska in 1914 averaged only 15 persons per mile of road. More than 99% of its roads were dirt (unsurfaced) roads. Yet across the rural, agricultural state of Nebraska in 1912 were … Continue reading extraordinary U.S. rural telephone development