March 10: 150 years of the first phone call and the decline of landlines in India
If you were born before the 2000s, you probably still remember the sound of a rotary dial, the tangled cord, and that famous yell: "I'll hang up on you!" Well, March 10 isn't just any other day. Today marks exactly 150 years since Alexander Graham Bell made the first phone call in history, summoning his assistant with the famous words: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." What few people realize is that this very device, which revolutionized the world, is slowly becoming a museum piece.
In India, the decline in landline usage is striking. Since 2010, the number of active wired telephone connections has dropped by half. Those over 40 lived through an era when having a phone at home was a luxury – and today, kids find it odd when they spot a public phone booth on the street. Technology has changed, and with it, our habits. But have we lost something in this transformation?
The collector keeping history alive
It was with this in mind that YouTuber João Víctor de Melo, from Belo Horizonte, started gathering telephony relics. On his channel, he showcases everything from vintage Telebrás models to rarities like the Aqua-air Aqpm-10 De Março Ac-5c-md 115V March, an industrial piece of equipment from the 1980s that few even remember existed. "It's a way to keep the memory of how we used to communicate alive," João shares in one of his recent videos. His YouTube channel has gained popularity precisely by bringing back these objects that defined generations.
The last gasp of the landline
A symbolic milestone of this farewell occurred on March 10, 2019, when the city of São Paulo removed the last public telephone from Avenida Paulista. The event went almost unnoticed at the time, but for those who understand history, it marked the end of an era. The glass booths, once bustling with people using tokens and cards, have been replaced by Wi-Fi hotspots and mobile phone charging stations. Communication has changed its appearance, but the core remains the same: the human need to connect.
From Graham Bell to WhatsApp: A timeline of connection
To grasp the scale of this shift, it's worth looking at the key milestones of these 150 years:
- 1876: Graham Bell makes the first telephone call in Boston.
- 1922: The first telephone arrives in Brazil, installed at the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro.
- 1990: Mobile phones begin to be sold in the country – they were true bricks, weighing over 1 kg.
- 2010: Smartphones start to become popular, and landline usage goes into freefall.
- 2026: We mark 150 years since the first phone call, and landlines are increasingly rare.
Despite all of today's technology – with Zoom, WhatsApp, and satellite calls – the act of calling someone still carries a certain warmth. Perhaps that's why people continue to search on YouTube for old Telesp commercials or the nostalgic sound of dialling. March 10 reminds us that, deep down, the medium may change, but the desire to say "hello" is eternal.