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125 Years of Phone Calls Bell South Marks Anniversary of System's Arrival in Augusta

Posted on: Friday, 21 January 2005, 03:00 CST

When BellSouth started in Augusta in 1879, terms such as "mobile phone" and "text messaging" might have gotten you a strange look, and saying "camera phone" might have gotten you a one-way ticket to the loony bin, not a candid of a friend.

The telecommunications industry has changed a lot since BellSouth, then known as Southern Bell, and the telephone got their start 125 years ago. The company is celebrating what once consisted of manually operated local switchboards and now is a complex digital system capable of routing calls all over the world.

The telephone was patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, but it didn't arrive in Augusta until three years later.

Mention of the "Bell Telephone" was scant in the local newspaper, according to the Augusta Chronicle's archives, during the first few months of 1879. But as the start for service loomed, blurbs and articles humming with excited anticipation went into the paper at least a few times per week.

"It will not be long before Augusta will work the telephone wires," said one blurb in the June 21, 1879, Chronicle & Constitutionalist, a precursor to The Augusta Chronicle.

Service officially started July 30, 1879, when the telephone exchange, the system that allows phone calls to be connected, was completed at 617 Broad St.

The American Speaking Telephone Co. began service in Augusta and was bought out by Southern Bell on Dec. 20, 1879. Southern Bell later became BellSouth.

There were 88 original subscribers, most of whom were major businesses such as factories, railroads, mills, the city cemetery, municipal offices and the Chronicle, according to a pamphlet from the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the telephone in Augusta, part of the collection of the Augusta Museum of History.

"Convenience and efficiency took a big jump, businesses saw the advantage of it real quick," said the museum's curator, Gordon Blaker said.

Original customers paid $3 per month, according to an 1879 article from the Chronicle. That amounts to about $55 in today's currency, according to an online historic inflation calculator sponsored by Miami and Wake Forest universities.

The introduction of the telephone in Augusta made life easier for consumers and helped businesses make sales.

"Instead of having someone run to the other side of town for something, you just picked up the phone and called them," Mr. Blaker said.

The telephone caught on slowly at first. Subscriber numbers had grown to only 302 by 1890. But by 1910 there were 4,215 subscribers, increasing to 9,801 by 1930 and to 29,881 by 1950, according to BellSouth.

More than 94 percent of U.S. homes today have a telephone, compared with only 8 percent in 1904.

Although BellSouth won't reveal its current customer figures for Augusta, the company does have 3.7 million lines in Georgia.

The face of telecommunciations continues to change rapidly. New cellular phones hit the market almost daily. And BellSouth is testing technology that allows phone calls to be made over the Internet and phones that transmit video.

"There will be more changes in the next five years than there were in the last 20," BellSouth spokeswoman LeAnn Boucher said.

PHONES IN AUGUSTA

July 30, 1879: Telephone service starts in Augusta. The first exchange office is at 617 Broad St.

December 20, 1879: Southern Bell (today known as Bell South) takes over telephone in Augusta from American Speaking Telephone Co. There were 88 subscribers at the time.

MARCH 10, 1889: The first known long-distance message is sent between Augusta and Atlanta.

1890: The first long distance wires are laid to Aiken. By this time, there were 302 subscribers in Augusta.

1910: Subscriber numbers in Augusta reach 4,215

Reach Adrian Burns at (706) 823-3352

or adrian.burns@augustachronicle.com.

Source: Augusta Chronicle, The

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