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India To Send World's Last Telegram

Posted by Soulskill on from the unless-we-decide-to-get-away-from-PRISM dept.

New submitter afarhan writes "India will pull the plug on its 160-year-old telegram service on 14 July, this year. This will probably be the last telegram ever sent in the world. However, telegrams are still relevant in this vast country. More than 500 million people are still without access to a phone or Internet. For these people, telegram still remains the only digital communication available. 'At their peak in 1985, 60 million telegrams were being sent and received a year in India from 45,000 offices. Today, only 75 offices exist, though they are located in each of India's 671 districts through franchises. And an industry that once employed 12,500 people, today has only 998 workers.' In India, telegram is also considered a legal correspondence."

1 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. dots and dashes = ones and zeroes = binary = digit by raymorris · · Score: 2, Insightful

    More than just digital, they are BINARY.

    Analog: composed of continuously variable values
    Digital: composed of discreet values
    Binary: composed of two possible values

    Since traditional telegraphs consist of only dots and dashes, they are digital, and binary. If they were analog, they would include "dot and a half", with infinite valid values between dot and dash.