First Telephone System process, a 40-year concession to lay

• The first telegraph line was opened in
1873 while the country's first telephone
system was established in Manila in
1890. Electric lines were first installed in
1895.
• The first telegraph line to be established
in the country was between Manila and
island of Corregidor.
• By that time, there was already in
operation here for almost a century a
limited former of postal service that
served government officials and certain
ranking individuals only.
• In 1890, during the administration of
Governor-General Valeriano Meyler y
Nicolao, the first telephone system was
put into operation.
• For a time, after the installation of the
first telegraph line, expansion of the
Islands telecommunications network was
a bit slow. On April 4, 1871, Rafael
lzquierdo Y Gutierrez whom history also
credits with having introduced the
steamboat into the local scene
became Governor-General. During his
administration, telegraph lines were
installed so that by 1873, two years after
he took over as head of the island
government, telegraph services became
available in more places.
• From then on, more telegraph lines were
installed so that by 1897, there were
already 65 government telegraph offices
in operation In the country of which 49
were In Luzon, 9 in Panay, 4 in Negros
and 3 In Cebu. The stations were
interconnected by 2,818 kilometers of
telegraph lines.
down and operate a submarine telegraph
cable between Luzon and the British
Grown Colony.
• Laying of the undersea cable for the
proposed system was undertaken by the
company’s cable ship CALABRIA which
completed the work on May 2,1880 with
the Philippine end of the 535-nautical
mile cable landing at Bolinao, then a part
of Zambales and now part of
Pangasinan. From that point an overland
cable was laid all the way to Manila, 160
miles away. Six days later cable
communications between Manila and
Hong Kong was officially opened to the
public.
• In 1898, however, during the height of
the Filipino revolt against Spanish
colonial rule, the company converted the
Bolinao. Manila aerial cable to
submarine to avoid the frequent cuttings
that It suffered from the Revolutionary
Forces- During the naval engagement
between the Spanish and American
Forces in Manila Bay on May 1,1898,
however, the undersea cable was
again cut disrupting once wore the
Manila-Hong Kong telegraph line.

The First International Telegram Link

• In 1878, the Spanish Government in
Madrid, recognizing the need for a
communications system that will
interconnect the Philippines with the rest
of the world invited tenders (bids) for the
establishment of a telecommunications
link between this country and Hong
Kong. The British firm, Eastern
Extension Australasia and China
Telegraph Company (now Cable and
Wireless) won the bid obtaining, in the