U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for March 10: First Phone Call

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FIRST PHONE CALL

Profile America — Friday, March10th. For many Americans, trying to envision life without our various telephones would be like trying to live without indoor plumbing. The crucial utility is 141 years old today. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first, local, telephone call in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over a wire to his assistant in the next room, Bell said, "Mister Watson, come here; I want to see you." Now, the public has an insatiable appetite for multipurpose phones, and there are 118 cell phone subscriptions for every 100 people in the U.S. population. Of America's 118 million occupied housing units, just 2.95 million, or about 2.5 percent, hav no phone service available. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.  

Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 7751
First call/accessed 12/30/2016: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/recon/jb_recon_telephone_1.html 
Cell phone subscriptions/accessed 12/30/2016: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.CEL.SETS.P2 
Households with phones/American Community Survey: https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/15_1YR/DP04

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu). 

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-census-bureau-daily-feature-for-march-10-first-phone-call-300417299.html

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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