Alexander Graham Bell is the first to transmit speech electronically.

Intelligible human speech is heard over the telephone for the first time when Bell calls to Watson, "Mr. Watson -- Come here -- I want to see you."

First telephone lines established in Boston, consisting of iron or steel.

Thomas Doolittle developed process for hard-drawn copper wire. Previously, copper was not strong enough as an overhead wire.

First switchboard was placed in commercial service with 21 subscribers in New Haven, CT.

Alexander Graham Bell established and patented metallic (or two-wire) circuits.

Wires began to be bunched into cables, requiring wires to be wrapped in lead in order to reduce noise on the lines.

Long distance service began between Boston and Salem.

Almon Stowger invented the automatic switch, connecting two parties without the aid of an operator. As an undertaker in Kansas City, Stowger suspected that local operators were routing calls to his rivals.

Cities as large as Manhattan and as small as Pratt, Kansas were strangled in phone wires.

Phantoming allowed third conversation to be superimposed on two pair of wires. Up to this point, the cost of installing copper wires had cost AT&T up to one fourth of all their budget.

First transcontinental phone line completed. Four copper wires were used, consisting of 5 million pounds of cable

Invention of the vacuum tube allowed the amplification of voice signals. Simultaneous conversations increased from 1.5 to 5 per wire.

During World War II, coaxial cable was invented and allowed up to 600 conversations per pair of cable.

TAT-1
(Transatlantic No. 1) was the first transatlantic telephone cable system.

Between 1955 and 1956, cable was laid between Gallanach Bay, near Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. It was inaugurated on September 25, 1956, initially carrying 36 telephone channels.

Digital transmission was introduced so sound waves can be sampled and reconstructed by computers.

Corning Glass developed the first fiber optics cable, which used laser light travelling through glass instead of electrons travelling through copper.

Fiber optics' information capacity estimated at 125,000 times that of comparable copper cable.

TAT-8 was the 8th transatlantic telephone cable, initially carrying 40,000 simultaneous calls between USA, England and France. The system was built at a cost of $335 million. This was the first transatlantic cable to use optical fibers.

The system contained two working pairs of optical fibers. (A third was reserved as a spare.)

EasyTEL Communications has constructed a metropolitan area network of fiber optics in Tulsa, OK. Fiber optics are extended completely to any business building within network without an installation charge.