http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e601moNCA7Q
In 1876, Alexander Bell brought about the first telephone. Before you knew it, telephone lines were popping up everywhere. Phones went from New York to Chicago, and everywhere in between. Out West lines were put up in San Fransisco and up and down the coast. In 1915, just like the transcontinental railroad had met up in the past to connect East and West America, telephone lines connected in Utah to do the same. What was the price for calling from one coast to the other? $20.70! And that was in 1915. That would be the equivalent of $433.66 in 2009. (http://www.westegg.com/inflation/) That's crazy money. Can you imagine spending that today? As can be seen from the video, working all the way up to 1970, the price cost only .70 cents.
It's a really neat video to watch and see the commercial from 1970 advertising how cheap it is to make a call. That was for weekends too. Nowadays you can get free weekends with your cell phone. Things sure have changed. And if you pay for online service, then it costs you nothing extra to talk to people around the world using Social Networking sites. It's a beautiful thing. I have a friend I met while on vacation and I keep in touch with her. She lives in Australia. It's daunting when you think about it. Neat stuff!
Tyler, I really enjoyed this post. It is hard to believe it cost so much to make a call in 1915. After seeing how it is equivalent to $433.66 in 2009 to make one call will make me not complain about my cell phone bill ever again. This article was very interesting. Thank you for the great post. You really opened up my eyes about telephones. Mary Ann Reday.
ReplyDeleteThat is crazy the price it cost back then! When a technology first comes out, it is normal for the price to be so high because it is not a normal. But as it becomes a normal, it gets cheapier. I can’t even imagine paying that much for my minutes today that are pretty much free because I have free nights and weekends. Just shows how society adapts to technology and things progress in that sense.
ReplyDeleteIts crazy to hear how much it would cost to just make a phone call across country, as if it was done today it would be very cheep. its just a example to see where we have came from. back in the day the technology was new and they needed to charge that amount to just keep the system running. also with free weekends and nights on most cell phones i can never see it going back to that.
ReplyDeleteWow. to imagine spending $400.00 on a phone bill! Phone companies are still inflating bills! My AT&T bill is ridiculous. The norm is one hundred and seventy five dollars, but the last two months have been over a hundred dollars over. The added fees were said to be from internet usage charges. Thanks to lowered cost of calling and free nights and weekends, phone companies are searching for new ways to charge consumers. Fees are excessive. I think Vonage and Skype are really threatening to the phone companies' bottom lines.
ReplyDeleteit is cost a lot to make call in the past(1915). I sure the phone was new invention by that time. but with the technology comes, every technology products become more cheaper and cheaper.
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