Dot, dash, full stop: Telegram service ends

One of India’s oldest communication services, the telegram - will become history.

Financial constraints have forced the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to wind up the telegraphic service, which would be remembered mainly as a historically inexpensive but relatively quick method of sending alerts related to births, deaths and emergency situations.

In India, the first telegraph message was transmitted live through electrical signals between Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Diamond Harbour, a distance of about 50 km, on November 5, 1850; and the service was opened for the general public in February 1855.

1927 saw the first Radio-telegram system between the UK and India.

Over the years, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) made several technical upgrades in the telegraph service, with the latest being the introduction of a web-based messaging system in 2010. However, growing Internet penetration and cheaper mobile phones in the last decade have kept people away from the 182 telegraph offices across the country.