U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for June 22: First Phone Booth

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FIRST PHONE BOOTH

Profile America — Thursday, June 22nd. America's first public phone booth was installed this month in 1880 in New Haven, Connecticut, just four years after the telephone was invented. These first public telephones were supervised by attendants, while those operated by coins came along nine years later. Today, it's increasingly rare to see a pay phone beyond transportation terminals, but the latest models have computer-like features, and worldwide, some booths are converting to wireless fidelity hot spots. Now, almost 98 percent of U.S. households have telephone service, and the number of cell phone subscriptions grew from 2 million in 1988 to over 300 million in 2010. Smart phone ownership is estimated to reach 220 million this year, or about two-thirds of the poulation. Profile America is in its 21st year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 7731
Phone booths/accessed 3/29/2017: www.bookrags.com/research/telephone-booth-woi/#gsc.tab=0 
Hotspot growth/accessed 3/29/2017: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2172374/New-York-phone-booths-makeover-WiFi-hotspots.html 
Cell phones: https://www.infoplease.com/science-health/cellphone-use/cell-phone-subscribers-us-1985a2010
Households with phone service/American Community Survey: https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/15_1YR/CP04
Cell phone and smart phone ownership/accessed 3/29/2017: www.statista.com/topics/2711/us-smartphone-market/

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-june-22-first-phone-booth-300476179.html

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]