Facts about the Telephone

1. 06

   Over 1.5 billion mobile phones were in use worldwide by 2012, surpassing the total number of landline telephones ever installed in history.

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2. 05

   Bell Telephone Company's operators were predominantly young women by 1880, as they were considered more polite and reliable than men, creating the first major female-dominated profession in American business.

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3. 04

   Rotary dial telephones required users to insert a coin for each call in 1889, when the first pay telephone was installed in Hartford, Connecticut by William Gray.

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4. 03

   By 1900, over 600,000 telephones existed in the United States, with Bell System controlling approximately 80 percent of the market through aggressive patent litigation and acquisitions.

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5. 02

   In 1915, the first transcontinental telephone call connected New York and San Francisco across 2,500 miles, with President Woodrow Wilson participating in the historic conversation.

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6. 01

   Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, though Antonio Meucci had developed a similar device in 1849 but lacked funds to secure a patent.

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