Our History

International Telegram Company formed

Our story began in New York when three giants of industry, William M. Laffan, Walter P. Phillips, and Thomas R. Taltavall, created the International Telegram Company to provide telegram and newswire service, and to publish telegraph-related books. Laffan and Phillips were prominent newspaper men, and Taltavall was a well-known inventor of telegraph equipment as well as the editor of the journal The Electrical Age.

Acquisition by Postal Telegraph Company

The company caught the attention of John William MacKay, one of the wealthiest men in America at the time. MacKay’s Postal Telegraph Company was rapidly growing. In 1893, MacKay acquired International Telegram, and by the 1930s Postal Telegraph had become the only major competitor to Western Union.

Merger with Western Union

The old rivals, Postal Telegraph and Western Union, finally merged in 1945, giving Western Union control of nearly all domestic telegrams in the United States. To avoid an illegal monopoly, the government required that Western Union sell off its international telegram business. A new, separate company was created, which was eventually named Western Union International (WUI).

The Canadian connection

Starting in the 1950s, both companies, Western Union and WUI, expanded the domestic U.S. network to include Canada. WUI laid cables across the Atlantic Ocean connecting Canada with Europe. Telegrams between the U.S. and the rest of the world were routed through Canada, making North America’s telegram network the world’s largest. During the 1970s, WUI expanded its network to include satellites and microwave radio data links.

Acquisition by MCI

In 1982, WUI became part of MCI, creating one of the world’s largest telecommunication companies. But in the early 2000s, MCI fell into bankruptcy. The U.S. portion of the international telegram service was sold off to Verizon. In Canada, the telegram service was operated by CNCP/Unitel (affiliated with AT&T) until 2002, and then by Telegrams Canada.

Western Union telegram becomes iTelegram

In 2006, Western Union exited the telegram business. Telegrams Canada, still operating the international system from the old WUI days, acquired Western Union’s domestic telegram business and the iTelegram website, and reinstated the original company name International Telegram to honor its heritage all the way back to 1892.

By 2010, International Telegram had acquired all remaining telegram and telex routes from Western Union, Verizon, and AT&T, becoming the only surviving telegram company in America.

All of the telegram companies’ headquarters have been situated within a small section of Manhattan in New York City:

1. International Telegram (1892)
   61 Park Row, later 253 Broadway
2. Postal Telegraph
   253 Broadway
3. Western Union
   60 Hudson Street
4. Western Union International (WUI)
   26 Broadway, later 1 WUI Plaza
5. MCI Telecommunications
   100 Park Avenue
6. Verizon
   140 West Street
7. International Telegram (2006)
   1178 Broadway

Walter P. Phillips, one of the original founders of the International Telegram Company, was also the author of the “Phillips Telegraphic Code”, a code book that defined thousands of abbreviations and acronyms for commonly used words. By using the Phillips Code, someone sending a telegram could save money on per-word charges.

The terms POTUS (President of the United States) and SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States), still known today, were originally first published in the Phillips Code back in the 1800s.