After 160 years of service the telegram bows out

In what some describe as the end of an era, the Czech Postal Service on Wednesday ended a 160-year-long practice of delivering telegrams. While in the 1930s Czechs sent about four million telegrams a year, the arrival of electronic communication in the 1990s practically killed demand for the service. Telegrams have been replaced mainly by mobile phone text messages and email.

On Wednesday, the public had one last chance to send a telegram from a Czech post office. Telefonica O2, the holder of the license, has terminated the contract on telegram delivery since it was no longer profitable to maintain the service. However, telegrams will not disappear completely; Telefonica O2 says it will continue to offer a modified version of the service. Marta Selicharová is a spokeswoman for the Czech Postal Service:

“In 1985, people in Czechoslovakia sent about 9.5 million telegrams. Last year, it was only 22,000. The Czech Postal Service sent on average 63 telegrams a month. People occasionally use it to send congratulations, but the service was mainly used by institutions and hospitals that need to relay information about patients to their relatives.”

Unlike in the past, when the telegram service was used on a daily basis and was the fastest way of relaying information, nowadays, paradoxically, a telegram is only delivered the day after it was sent, so a standard letter reaches its recipient in the same time. The most efficient competitor of a telegram is the postal service Dopis Online or Letter Online, which makes it possible to send a letter via a web site.

Photo: CTK

Wednesday being the last day when the Czech Postal Service delivers telegrams, I decided I would give it a try and headed for the main Prague post office in Jindřišská street. After filling in the form, I submitted it to the man behind the counter, who explained just how the service works:

“So the basic fee for sending a telegram is 75 crowns and then you pay five crowns per word of up to nine letters. If there are words longer than that you pay twice as much. So now I am going to count all the words and letters that you have written down and we will figure out the overall sum. The address of the sender is the only thing you don’t have to pay for.”

“So according to me the end price is 205 crowns. There are altogether 22 words. Now I have to call the switchboard, where they will check it again and only then can the telegram be sent.”

In recent years, only a few people a week would come to the counter to send a telegram, but today, the switchboard is overloaded and it takes more than half an hour to dispatch the message. Also, with more than 200 crowns for just one sentence, the telegram is not exactly an inexpensive way of communication. I think I’ll stick to electronic means in the future.