U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for January 25

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL PHONE CALL

Profile America — Sunday, January 25th. On this date in 1915, east and west were linked by voice in the first transcontinental phone call. This event was a conference call involving Alexander Graham Bell in New York, his assistant Thomas Watson in San Francisco, President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, and the president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in Georgia. Using the new commercial service was a major financial commitment. The charge for a three-minute call from New York to San Francisco started at $20.70. That's over $486 today. Over 97 percent of America's households have phone service. Landline and cellular services combined cost these households an average of $1,270 per year. The cellular service cost alone is over $900. Profile America is in its18th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources:
Kane's Famous First Facts, 7718
Inflation:
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=20.70&year1=1915&year2=2014 
Phone service percentage: http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_13_1YR_DP04&prodType=table 
Phone service expenditures/pg. 4: http://www.bls.gov/cex/2013/combined/age.pdf

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

Related Links

http://www.census.gov

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