The history of the Central Telegraph

History. Introduction.

In 1832 P. L. Shilling, a Russian inventor, constructed the world's first electromagnetic telegraph apparatus, an invention that started a revolution in the field of communication systems.

Since then, a lot of new means of communication have been invented; mail has become electronic, the exchange of ideas or work results with others is as simple as entering information into the Internet (the global computer network), allowing you to hear and be heard by those usually unreachable by usual means of transportation or communication.

The history of the Central Telegraph reflects the history of telecommunication since the invention of the telegraph and up to elaboration of advanced telecommunication systems.

1. 1852 - The founding of the first Moscow telegraph

The first Moscow telegraph was founded at Kalanchevsky Square in the building of the St.-Petersburg-Moscow railway station (now it is called Leningrad station) for the service of the railway and for special orders and instructions.

2. 1856 - Moscow telegraph was moved from the station building to one of the Moscow Kremlin buildings, where governmental communication and reception and transfer of private dispatches took place. When an Emperor stayed in Moscow, private messages were accepted near Trinity gates of the Kremlin.

3. 1859 - The founding of the Central City Telegraph Station on Gazetny Street.

The Kremlin telegraph station, which had been founded in 1856, was not able to manage the growing flow of telegraphic exchange. This presented the designers with the question of building a new telegraph station in a convenient district. On the 6th of November, 1859, the first Central City Telegraph to service private persons was founded in Moscow. It was located in the house of Mrs. Babina, collegiate councilor, on Gazetny Street, near the present location of the Central Telegraph.

4. 1869 - The Central City Telegraph Station on Myasnitskaya Street.

In 1869, Moscow's Central City Telegraph Station was relocated a house near the Post-Office on Myasnitskaya Street, which was previously home to a station of post and light carriages.

5. 1929 - The Central Telegraph's new address - 7, Tverskaya Street.

By January of 1929, the Central Telegraph had 102 Baudot apparatuses, 18 teletype apparatuses, 46 Hughes telegraphs, 60 Morse apparatuses and 14 apparatuses for radio communication from the companies Creed, Winston and Siemens. The Central Telegraph's staff at that time consisted of 2286 employers.

On the night of August 11th, 1929, the Central Telegraph moved to a new building, located at 7, Tverskaya Street. The building was constructed and equipped according to the latest in engineering technology. The grand opening of the Podbelsky House of Communication, as it was called at that time, took place on the 29th of August in the Central Telegraph's club. A sign hung over the main entrance, which read: "Mail, Telegraph and Telephone services are available".

In that same year the first facsimile communication was constructed between Moscow and Leningrad using bronze overhead conductors.

6. 1947 - The first subscriber telegraph station is founded.

The first subscriber telegraph pilot station, designed for 30 numbers, was placed into operation. The CT-35 telegraph apparatuses were installed at the subscriber's sites. A switchboard operator connected the subscribers manually. Timely telegraph communication was set up between organizations and enterprises in different towns of the country. At the same time, work on creating a manual switching station for 240 numbers began.

The technical staff of the Central Telegraph, by itself, mounted the equipment for the subscriber telegraph and sent it to other towns of Russia. On the whole, more than 20 stations were prepared and shipped.

7. 1956 - Telex, the international subscriber telegraph network, is established.

The international subscriber telegraph network Telex is created. Seven international channels and one T-15 apparatus with Latin register and 50 baud rate were connected on the 7th switch of the ATA-50 station of the Subscriber telegraph.

The first subscriber to Telex - The Chief Department of the Civil Air Fleet - was registered on the 20th of November under the number 1148. In November, the first telex communication lines were set up with Berlin, Prague, Budapest and Warsaw.

8. 1964 - A system of newspaper transmission over telecommunications lines is created.

On the 17th of June, 1964, a system of receiving was put into operation - transmission of full-format pictures of newspaper pages over the communication lines from Moscow to Leningrad, the first point of decentralized printing. The transmission was carried out with the help of "Murkhed" foreign equipment.

Later on, the system of the transmission of newspapers from Moscow to Novosibirsk was created. Newspaper pages were transmitted by phototelegraph using home-produced equipment and apparatuses - "Gazeta-1" ("Newspaper-1"). The duration of the transmission of one newspaper page was 50 minutes. The transmission of newspapers over the communication lines quickened the delivery of central newspapers to Russian towns.

9. 1977 - The first Public Point for data transmission is established.

Public Point, the first place in the country for data transmission, is opened at the Central Telegraph. The equipment is mounted on the basis of the TAP-2 subscriber's point, supplied by the Hungarian company "TERTA". The data was transmitted over the PD-200 network at the rate of 200 bit/s. The received information was delivered to the addressees by car.

High-rate lines of communication were established for the transmission of central newspapers from Moscow to Riga, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Zaporozhye.

10. 1979 - Telex, an International Station, creates the first program-driven system.

Central Telegraph's new industrial building is built.

Telex, a new international electronic program-driven telex station AXB-20, purchased from the Swedish Company "Ericsson", is created. It is designed for connecting 1600 channels and 2000 subscribers. Hardware and software means of control raised the reliability of the operation of the Telex network and the quality of the services provided.

According to the project of workshop No.14 of the institute "Mosprojekt-2", a new building for the servicing of the XXII Olympic Games 1980 on Nikitsky Street was built. The point of information collection is equipped with facsimile apparatuses "Infotech-6000", about 500 telegraph apparatuses of the subscriber telegraph are installed.

Going from tape to page teleprinters T-100 and LO-2000, and using the electronic equipment "Interval" resulted in raising the speed of sending telegrams.

The introduction of the voice-frequency carrier telegraphy equipment TT-48 and TT-12 allowed to continue the work on the automation of the adjustment of the voice-frequency carrier telegraph channels.

11. 1993 - The system of international transmission facsimile messages is established.

Global SprintFax, the Central Telegraph's new service, provides an opportunity to send a fax to any point on the globe automatically. With the appearance of this service the quantity of sent messages increased 7 times.

Two new information systems are connected to Central Telegraph's network. "Staff-Department" system has several access levels and provides the possibility to get answers to queries and to make selections on several criteria. The second system - USIS (Juristic Inquiry and Information System) - makes search for legislative acts in dozens of legislation and law areas.

12. 1994 - The X.25 packet switching center is organized. New services: express-delivery of the mail, receiving telegrams by the telephone number "06".

The X.25 packet switching center of the data transmission network is organized. An automated reference system of the subscriber telegraph network started operations.

The new automated "All-round system of payments for the services of Central Telegraph and revenue records" started to operate.

The experts of Central Telegraph together with the personnel of the Russian company "LVS" began to develop the requirements to the complex of basic hardware and software of the Integrated system of Central Telegraph management.

The Muscovites got an opportunity to send telegrams by the telephone number "06".

Central Telegraph, together with "EMC Guarantpost", offered a new service to the guests of the capital - express-delivery of the mail to 184 countries around the world and to more than 300 towns of Russia and the CIS.

The SKAT-P station, that connected the Telex AXB-20 station with the subscriber's station AT-50 "Nikola Tesla", was put into operation.

13. 1995 - The Joint-Stock Company "Central Telegraph" is founded. The Radiotel cellular radio network of data transmission is established. The second phase of the "Gazeta-3" equipment was put into operation. The Central Telegraph is awarded "The Golden Torch of Birmingham".

In accordance with the decree of the Committee of Property Administration of Moscow dated the 1st of September, 1994, the state-owned enterprise "Central Telegraph" is converted into the open joint-stock company "Central Telegraph".

On the basis of Widanet technology of the British company "Racal", the Radiotel cellular radio network of data transmission is established. It permits to solve the problem of prompt connection of subscribers to the data transmission X.25 network. The operation of the Radiotel network started on the 15th of May, 1995.

The operation of the Center of International Messages Switching and the second phase of "Gazeta-3" equipment for the facsimile transmission of newspaper pages started.

The Central Telegraph received the prestigious international award "The Golden Torch of Birmingham".

14. 1996 - A gateway between the telegraph networks and the X.25 data transmission network is established. The new services: Radiotelex, Electronic mail. The first meeting of the shareholders of JSC "Central Telegraph". The "Global One" company is founded.

A gateway between the telegraph networks and the X.25 data transmission network is established. A new service is provided by the Central Telegraph - Radiotelex.

On the 26-th of May, the first meeting of the shareholders of the "Central Telegraph" JSC took place. The meeting elected the board of directors and the auditing commission. V.M. Roubtzov was appointed General director of the "Central Telegraph" JSC. The "Arthour Andersen" company was confirmed an external auditor.

The Electronic mail system of the Central Telegraph began operations.

By using the telephone number "06", it is possible to get free the information about the availability of medicines at drug-stores in Moscow.

The consulting companies "Oracle" (USA) and "LVS" (Russia) carried out the strategic business-analysis of the Central Telegraph.

The "Global One" company, founded by the companies "Sprint", "Deutsche Telekom" and "France Telecom", started its work. The Central Telegraph became a cofounder (40% of shares) of its Russian department.

15. 1997 - A new service - access to the Internet. The construction of a new channel communication station - ELTEX.

New services of the Central Telegraph - access to the Internet over leased lines, over lines of the Subscriber telegraph and Telex networks, and also the creation, location and maintenance of web-pages and the creation of web sites.

In February the Central Telegraph got a license from the State Committee on Communications and Informatics Development for the provision of services of telephone communication in the Moscow region.

JSC Central Telegraph started working on the Centel Project, providing for the set-up of an integrated intelligent communication network in the Moscow region.

16. 1998 - Goskomsvyaz RF allocated necessary telephone numbering capacity in 095 area code in the amount of 210,000 numbers for the implementation of the Centel Project.

17. 1999 - Central Telegraph together with JSC MGTS and JSC Center-Telecom was appointed the main operator in charge of the reconstruction of the communication network in the Moscow region. According to the "Principles of the development of Moscow region telephone network for the period 1997-2007" approved by the Ministry of Communication, 400,000 numbers in a new 498 area code introduced specially for the Moscow region were allocated to JSC Central Telegraph.

JSC Central Telegraph sells its share in the charter capital of Global One (40%) in order to get necessary funds for the financing of the Centel Project.

18. Over the period 1999-2000 the company implemented all necessary operations for the establishment of the basic Centel network and in 1999 started to provide digital telephone services to Moscow subscribers.

19. 2000 - JSC Central Telegraph began to provide services of international and domestic long-distance communication on the basis of prepaid cards and successfully distributes cards for Internet access through switched lines.