Museum of Science and Industry

Today we take for granted the ability to communicate instantly over long distances. Yet for more than a century, this was an essential of business life rather than personal life. Only 42% of British homes had a telephone by 1975

The first commercial telegraph office in Manchester opened in 1852. Manchester cotton merchant John Pender first invested in a telegraph company in the same year. He was quick to recognise the telegraph's global potential. Pender's Eastern Telegraph Company evolved into today's Cable & Wireless.

In 1878, the Post Office supplied its first telephones to a Manchester hardware merchant. A year later, two telephone exchanges opened in Manchester. Soon, local companies David Moseley & Sons and Peel Connor began making telephone equipment. 

Cellular phone services began in 1985. Early mobile phones were about the size and weight of a brick. A digital network, carrying text messages as well as voice, was launched in 1992. Mobile phones began to shrink and ownership to grow.