March 10: 150 Years Since the First Phone Call, and the Decline of Landlines in Brazil
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'm hanging 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 most people don't realize is that the very device that revolutionized the world is slowly becoming a museum piece.
In Brazil, the decline in landline usage is staggering. Since 2010, the number of active wired telephone lines has been cut in half. Anyone over 40 remembers when having a phone at home was a luxury—and today, kids do a double-take when they see a payphone on the street. Technology has changed, and so have our habits. But have we lost something along the way?
The collector keeping history alive
That's exactly what motivated YouTuber João Víctor de Melo, from Belo Horizonte, to start gathering telephone 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 explains in one of his recent videos. His YouTube channel has gained popularity precisely by rescuing these artifacts that defined generations.
The landline's last gasp
A symbolic milestone in this farewell happened 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 The glass phone booths, once bustling with people using tokens and phone cards, have been replaced by Wi-Fi hotspots and cell phone charging stations. Communication has changed its clothes, but the essence remains: 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 over 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: Cell phones go on sale in the country for the first time – they were true bricks, weighing over 2 pounds (1 kg).
- 2010: Smartphones start to become mainstream, and landline usage begins its free fall.
- 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. Maybe that's why people continue to search YouTube for old Telesp commercials or the nostalgic sound of a rotary dial. March 10 reminds us that, deep down, the method may change, but the urge to say "hello" is timeless.