Still a niche communications medium: The diffusion and uses of the telephone system in interwar Britain

Peter Scott

Business History, 2011, vol. 53, issue 6, 801-820

Abstract: This article examines the socio-economic diffusion of the telephone in interwar Britain and its dominant uses. Even in the late 1930s the top 5% of the income distribution still constituted the majority of residential subscribers. Meanwhile, in contrast to the United States and Canada, British telephone use remained largely restricted to brief, informational, and relatively urgent calls. This can be partially explained in terms of Britain's high telephone charges. However, cultural factors also appear significant, particularly the impact of previous slow diffusion and high charges in inhibiting ‘social learning’ regarding using the phone for in-depth conversations.

Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00076791.2011.578131 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:bushst:v:53:y:2011:i:6:p:801-820

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FBSH20

DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2011.578131

Access Statistics for this article

Business History is currently edited by Professor John Wilson and Professor Steven Toms

More articles in Business History from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().