Abstract

In the case of the commune of Trento, whilst the arrival of the telephone mainly affected the internal organization of offices (although this did not exclude connections and relationships with other actors), the introduction of the telephone had an immediate impact on the institutional dimension of the commune, that of the city and then of a much broader territory. The municipality was involved in the development of telephony both as a user of the service and as an institution which by its nature represented the various actors and forces concerned with the project: the local community, impulses for self-government, the state, interest associations, and other local representative organizations.