With telegraph
wires connecting the Post Offices across the country, by 1870 people could
send telegrams.
The telephone was
not advertised locally until 1892 when the Post Office was given the monopoly
of trunk lines between towns and cities. Private telephone companies like the National
Telephone Company could provide lines in the rural areas. They had
difficulty getting subscribers in St Neots until the early 1900s.
(Sources: Young, R. (1996), 'St Neots Past',
Phillimore; Tebbutt, C.F. (1978), St Neots – History of a Huntingdonshire Town,
Unwin Brothers)