---
title: "When was the last telegram sent?"
description: "India's state telegraph service closed, the last large public network to do so, 15 July 2013. What happened, and whether it plausibly could happen again."
url: https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/telegram/
site: "At One Place"
---

# When was the last telegram sent?

**When was the last telegram sent?: 15 July 2013**

India's state telegraph service closed, the last large public network to do so

Western Union had stopped in the United States on 27 January 2006 after 145 years. India's BSNL kept going seven years longer because the telegram retained legal weight there for certain notices, and on its final day the service handled a surge of people sending one for the sake of it. A handful of small commercial services still exist, which is why "the last telegram" is a slightly slippery claim.

- **What:** India's state telegraph service closed, the last large public network to do so
- **When:** 15 July 2013
- **Category:** Technology that stopped
- **Could this change?:** Not in any foreseeable way. The event is closed.

## Technology that stopped

| Question | When |
| --- | --- |
| When was the last Boeing 747 delivered? | 31 January 2023 |
| When did Microsoft Office last change its default font? | 2023 |
| When was the last VCR manufactured? | July 2016 |
| When did the last typewriter factory close? | 2011 |
| When was the last roll of Kodachrome developed? | 30 December 2010 |
| When did analogue television end in the United States? | 12 June 2009 |
| When did Concorde last fly? | 24 October 2003, with the last flight of all on 26 November 2003 |

> This page gives a date and never a "years ago". These pages are built as static files, so a computed interval would freeze at build time and quietly become wrong — which on a reference site is worse than making the reader do the subtraction.

## Common questions

### When was the last telegram sent?

15 July 2013 — India's state telegraph service closed, the last large public network to do so.

### What happened?

Western Union had stopped in the United States on 27 January 2006 after 145 years. India's BSNL kept going seven years longer because the telegram retained legal weight there for certain notices, and on its final day the service handled a surge of people sending one for the sake of it. A handful of small commercial services still exist, which is why "the last telegram" is a slightly slippery claim.

## Related pages

- [When was the last Boeing 747 delivered?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/boeing-747/)
- [When did Microsoft Office last change its default font?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/office-default-font/)
- [When was the last VCR manufactured?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/vcr/)
- [When did the last typewriter factory close?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/typewriter-factory/)
- [When was the last roll of Kodachrome developed?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/kodachrome/)
- [When did analogue television end in the United States?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/analogue-tv-us/)
- [When was the last Boeing 747 delivered?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/boeing-747/)
- [When did Microsoft Office last change its default font?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/office-default-font/)
- [When did the London Underground last gain a line?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/london-underground-line/)
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- [Everything, most recent first](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]