Newfoundland History

Telegraph and Telephone in Newfoundland

(to 1949)

[This text was written in 1949. For the full citation, see the end of the document.]

 

Newfoundland figured largely in the early development of traps-Atlantic telegraphic service, and is the western terminus of several submarine lines.

 

 

Cabot Tower, on top of Signal Hill, where the first

wireless message was sent by Marconi

Telegraphic service between points on the island is conducted by the government under the post-office department. In 1946, out of 617 post-offices in Newfoundland and Labrador, 171 were telegraph offices. Of these, 67 were land-line offices, 95 were wireless offices, and 9 were both. On the Labrador coast, and in some other outlying areas, service is by radio-telegraph.

 

Telephone service, operated by the Avalon Telephone Company, reaches most parts of the island ether by land-lines or by radio-telephone, and forms a link between some of the smaller settlements and the postal telegraph stations.

 

Back to Newfoundland Economy

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada . Newfoundland Supplement , Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1949, 104p., p. 94.