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6:46 AM
“India’s last telegram will be sent on Sunday night as the country’s state-run telegraph service shuts down….The telegraph service started in 1851 when the British East India Company built a 30-mile (48km) electric telegraph line from the city of Calcutta to its suburb of Diamond Harbour, primarily for official use. Over the next few years, telegraph lines were expanded to cover the entire country and in 1855, the service was opened for public use."
Unsurprisingly, India is not the first country to stop offering telegram service: Australia shut down its telegram service in 2011 (though “in the Victorian town of Beechworth, visitors can send telegrams to family members or friends from the Beechworth Telegraph Station."), along with Ireland in 2002, New Zealand in 1999 and Nepal in 2009.
Surprisingly, one can still send telegrams in the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, the United States and Mexico (where “telegrams are still used as a low-cost service for people who cannot afford or do not have access to e-mail.") Check out the worldwide status of telegram services for a complete listing. We of course know how Holmes would feel about this sad state of affairs, Watson once having remarked that Sherlock has "never been known to write where a telegram would serve" (DEVI).
(from Baker St. Blog)