This undated file photo shows a signboard for telegram and telephone services. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — KT Corp., a major telecom company in South Korea, is scheduled to end its domestic telegram service in December, 138 years after its debut in the country, industry sources said Wednesday.
KT, South Korea’s top fixed-line operator, posted on its webpage on Nov. 2 a notice that its 115 domestic telegraph service is coming to an end on Dec. 15, according to the sources.
“Traffic has been falling drastically each year due to changes in the environment of the communications market,” KT said. “The company will not provide the service any longer because of rising losses.”
Earlier on April 8, 2018, KT, also the country’s No. 2 wireless carrier, put an end to its international telegram service.
KT didn’t disclose the number of its customers using telegraphs, the best and quickest way to communicate news across great distances in the 19th and 20th centuries.
South Korea introduced the telegram service in 1885 with it first telegram being sent between Seoul and the western port of Incheon.
After the country’s liberation from Japan’s colonial rule, the Ministry of Communication and the Korea Telecom Authority, KT’s predecessor, provided the telegram service.
Yet the number of telegram users in South Korea has been plunging in line with the spread of emails and mobile phones in the 1990s, with people using telegraphs only for congratulations messages or gifts.
South Korea is not alone. The world has also been experiencing a trend of the service coming to an end. Britain ditched telegrams in 1982, the United States sent its last in 2006 and Germany terminated the service on Jan. 1, 2023.
(Yonhap)
