Before ... 1886 Arrival of the first Phonebooks


1887 / 1889 Construction of the Eiffel Tower

There are many legends and fairy tales
and nobody knows precisely
who invented the expression Yellowpages ...

According to one of legend
in 1883 a printer in the US city Cayenne
run out of white paper and used yellow he had in stock
to finish printing a directory that had to respect a deadline.

Eiffel Tower under construction
Eiffel Tower
under construction in 1888

Eiffel Tower completed
The Eiffel Tower
also a Telecom equipment
The Eiffel Tower is constructed from 1887 to 1889
as a temporary building for the Expo Universelle in 1889.



It is initailly planned to dismantel the Tower in 1909,
but it also has it´s use as a Telecommunication equipment,
serving as an antenna for radio transmission.
Gustave Eiffel fights for the conservation of his tower
which is today the icon of France.

1889 Nationalization
of the Phonecompany



Societe Generale des Telephones

1889 July 16 a law is passed to nationalize Telephone services.
All Telephone activites come under the control of the Ministery des Postes et Telegraphes,
later PTT (Postes, Telephone et Telegraphes).

The Société Generale des Téléphones SGT
loses the ownership of the telephone network.

The company concentrates
on the manufacturing
phone equipment.



1890 France has 10.000 télphone subscribers

1891 a submarine cable is installed
under the Channel (la Manche)
connecting Paris and London.

1906 Centrales Téléphoniques in Paris

1906 the Telephone network of Paris is divided into 7
"centrales téléphoniques (phone hubs)




Eiffel Tower under construction
Paris telephone network in 1906
Collection de la Bibliothèque historique des Postes et des Télécommunications


Gutenberg, Chaudron, Roquette,
Port Royal, Saxe, Passy, Desrenaudes


Next ... 1946 Telecommunications in France after WW2




White Pages.fr