The Spanish telephone sector (1876-1924)

A case of technological backwardness

Bibliographic Data

ID14800554
AuthorsÁngel Amado Calvo Calvo (0000-0002-1370-9970, Universitat de Barcelona, corresponding author), Angel Calvo
Year2002
Volume18
Issue2
Pages77-102
Publication date2002-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Technology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0734-1512 • E-ISSN: 1477-2620
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07341510220150324
OpenAlexW2052764013
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited7

This article explains the often neglected history of the Spanish telephone sector. Its main purpose is to examine the factors that determined the technological choices that were made in this sector, and to describe and analyze the growth of telephone networks in Spain and the rest of Europe between 1876 and 1924, a period marked by the internationalization of technology. It concludes that a complex range of factors, varying in their specific importance over the period, determined the pattern of technological diffusion in this sector. In the period dominated by Bell's patents, the sector was characterized by a high degree of technological homogeneity. However, once the licenses on these patents expired, a greater variety of technological devices were adopted in the sector, although this variety was limited by the control that the larger firms wielded over the market and policies of international cooperation. Spain, unable to keep pace with technological developments elsewhere in Europe, failed to establish its own national industry of telephone materials and equipment

Backwardness · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Geography · Industrial organization · International trade · Internationalization · Macroeconomics · Pace · Technological change · Historical and socio-economic studies of Spain and related regions · Media, Journalism, and Communication History

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