Thu Feb 2, 2006 7:24 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Cheap long distance calling. E-mail and instant messaging. Cell phones and other wireless devices.
Thanks to new technology, consumers have a lot of options for communicating these days. Thanks to new technology, they've also lost a few.
Western Union quietly announced last week that it was exiting the telegram business -- a business that was synonymous with its name for 155 years.
'Effective January 27, 2006,' the company said in a note posted without ceremony on its Web site, 'Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage.'
Consumers eager to send a singing telegram, one of many Western Union innovations, would have to look elsewhere, the company said.
The move doesn't signal the end of Western Union. In fact the company, which was founded in Rochester, New York, in 1851, is actually on the verge of a new chapter in its life.
Just last week, its parent, Greenwood Village, Colorado-based First Data Corp.
But the announcement formally recognizes that Western Union has become a financial services company, deriving nearly all its revenue from transferring money around the country and around the world.
The peak of Western Union's telegram business was 1929, when the company and its army of uniformed messengers delivered 200 million telegrams worldwide -- almost 550,000 a day.
In 2005, the company delivered just 20,000 -- about 55 a day. The Western Union messengers were gone. In their place were third-party couriers. And the average price had jumped to $10.
'It was a hard decision,' said Western Union spokesman Colin Wheeler. 'It wa"
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