- published: 22 Mar 2014
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The telex network is a switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network, for the purposes of sending text-based messages. This network provided the first common medium for international record communications using standard signalling techniques and operating criteria as specified by the International Telecommunication Union.
Telex began in Germany as a research and development program in 1926 that became an operational teleprinter service in 1933. The service was operated by the Federal Post Office and had a speed of 50 baud - approximately 66 words-per-minute.
Canada-wide automatic teleprinter exchange service was introduced by the CPR Telegraph Company and CN Telegraph in July 1957 (the two companies, operated by rivals Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, would join to form CNCP Telecommunications in 1967). This service supplemented the existing international telex service that was put in place in November 1956. Canadian telex customers could connect with nineteen European countries in addition to eighteen Latin American, African, and trans-Pacific countries. The major exchanges were located in Montreal (01), Toronto (02), and Winnipeg (03).