Telegram Service lost its sense in the era of electronic communications.

From April 1st, 2010 the Czech Post will no more deliver telegrams. The reason is obvious: most of its delivery personnel have not carried a telegram in their bag for several years.

In the period between the wars, Czechoslovak postal telegraph operators used the Morse code (1837) to send four million messages every year. The same figure in the socialist Czechoslovakia was about ten million a year. The boom of electronic communications in the 1990s changed it all. The figures fell sharply.

The 3,337 post offices received only 756 telegrams in 2009. This makes the monthly nationwide average of 63 telegrams.

The occasional customers still keeping the tradition are hospitals, using the service when a patient cannot communicate and it is necessary to send a message to the family. A telegram is sent to the address in the patient's identity card, without any certainty whether it will reach the addressee or not.

Number of received telegrams since 2000

Number of received telegrams since 2000

Since 1993 the Czech Post has been only a service company for the Telegram Service

The delivery contract between the Czech Post and the Telegram Service licence holder, Telefónica 02, Czech Republic, a.s., has been terminated in the autumn 2009. The licence holder set April 1st, 2010 as the definite date to close down the unprofitable and already obsolete service. SMS text messages and emails turned telegrams into historic artefacts.

Denmark and Ireland closed down their telegram services thirty years ago. In the 1990s, it was dissolved in Sweden. France and Austria shut it down at the beginning of this century. The Slovak Post Telegram Service ended in 2007.

What you may not know about telegrams

Telegram Service is a costly service. It has also lost its original role as the fastest tool of communication with the addressee, even without considering today's electronic communication tools.

The fixed price per telegram is CZK 75 plus further CZK 5 for each word containing up to ten characters.

At the time of their massive use, telegrams used to be delivered by the recipient post office immediately after arrival.

Today, they are delivered by the delivery staff's ordinary walk. This means a telegram will be delivered the day next to its posting, like ordinary letter mail.

SMS text messages or emails are not the only alternatives to telegrams

Customers that for various reasons prefer services similar to telegrams to electronic communication technology, can use a number of services provided by the Czech Post with the same or higher efficiency at much lower prices.

The following table contains a simple comparison of telegram and some of our alternative services:

	Telegram	Postfax	Ordinary Letter	LetterOnline	EMS
Posting	All post offices	All post offices	All post offices +post. boxes	From your PC	All post offices
Speed	Next day	Next day	Next day	Next day	max. 2 p.m. next day
Price	Average CZK 160	Approx. CZK 100	CZK 10	Average CZK 20	Average CZK 130
Delivery	All post offices	All post offices	All post offices	All post offices	All post offices
Certificate of posting	Yes (without verification)	No	No	Yes	No

Since the start last June, LetterOnline has become the most efficient competitor to telegrams.

With LetterOnline you can post your letter online on www.postservis.cz. We will print it out, envelope and mail it to the addressee. Your letter will be delivered next day. The average price is CZK 20 payable against invoice, via the SIPO system or by sending a premium SMS. You can get more information about the scheme at LetterOnline.

Czech postal history is a big adventure. Both in the deep history and since the birth of the independent Czechoslovak state.

Make sure of it by visiting the Postal Museum at Prague 1, Nové mlýny 1239/2, or the large postal exposition of the Postal Museum in Vyšší Brod.

Postal Service in Bohemia and Moravia (KNIHY 555, Liberec 2008) is an extraordinary publication with an absorbing narrative style and professional erudition.