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One hundred and five years ago there were seven Independent Telephone companies in and around Philadelphia that were struggling to survive against much opposition. They had managed to connect toll lines and give a fair quality of toll service to each other; however, no consideration had been given to the question of how this service should be handled and how settlements between the companies should be made.
By the middle of 1902 this interchangeable business had increased in volume until it became imperative that some plan should be devised for its care. During the Fall of that year these companies met together several times and on November 17, 1902, organized the Eastern Traffic Association of Independent Telephone Companies with Mr. C.E. Wilson, of the Keystone Telephone Company, as President. Mr. Harold E. Bradley, an employee of the AT&T Company, who had urged the companies to set up such an organization, was employed as Superintendent to install the system and take charge of the work.
The object of the Association was “To promote and encourage interchange of business between its members and to operate the properties of said members as one system, for the purpose of more effective competition with the Bell.”
The first settlement made by the Association was for June 1903, when a total interchangeable business of $3015 was reported. It was soon determined that the amount of business done by each company was a fairly constant percentage of the whole, so it was decided to assess each company a similar percentage of the expense of the Association.
It will be interesting to note that in 1902 there were 2,370,000 telephones in the United States, of which about half were Independent. It might also be noted that none of the seven companies that formed the original organization are still in existence.
he Association continued to grow and by 1916 it had 88 member companies in eight states, of which 67 were in Pennsylvania . In that year it took over the service work of the Eastern and Western Pennsylvania Independent Telephone Associations, which had been set up as regional service organizations. It was also at that time that the Association first filed all interchangeable toll rates with the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission.
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