Pronto, that all-Italian way of answering the phone!

All over the world or almost all over the world, the answer to the phone is the same: in English with the typical Hello, but also in French, Spanish, German people answer the phone with a simple hello or Buongiorno. In Italy, on the other hand, we have our own way of answering, with that “Pronto!” which immediately indicates to us that our interlocutor is Italian.
But where did this custom come from?

In the early days, all connections were made through a switchboard that sorted calls; when the connection was ready, the switchboard operator would alert with a resounding Pronto!
Hence the typical expression indicating the beginning of a telephone conversation.

If you think these are tales related to the Nineteenth Century, actually in Italy still in 1970 you had to talk to a switchboard operator to make a call outside your district.
One hundred years earlier Antonio Meucci had filed a patent for that extraordinary device of the telephone.

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The wireless telephone, illustration.

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