The Development of the Communications System in Santa Catarina: The Telephone (1876-1927)

Abstract

The following article aims to discuss the addition of telephone services to the communications system in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina from the installation of the earliest telephones in Desterro in 1876 to the late 1920s. The installation of telephone services is framed within the movement towards modernization combining and overlapping geo-economic layers formed by transport, communications, and electricity services consolidated by state participation, forming regional economic systems. The article is divided into four sections, with the first section offering a brief historical context from the invention of the telephone to its arrival in Brazil, in parallel to the expansion of the telegraph network. The second section narrates the earliest telephone initiatives in Santa Catarina, spanning the period of 1876 to 1907, merging telephone and telegraph services. The third section discusses the fragmented advances made by telephone services from 1907 to 1918, highlighting activities by Grossenbacher & Trinks in Joinville and Florianópolis. Finally, the fourth section analyzes the period of 1918 to 1927, describing the telephone’s limited consolidation in Santa Catarina with the emergence of telephone providers in some of the state’s main cities, but whose services failed to meet the demands of rapid urban expansion.