Beginning with the capital city of Rome in 1910, this was the most widely implemented of the various telephone newspaper operations, however, in the early 1920s, the systems were merged with, and eventually superseded by, the development of radio broadcasting.
Beginning in 1906, Luigi Ranieri, an Italian engineer who represented the Construction Mécaniques Escher Wyss and Company of Zurich, Switzerland, applied for permission to install systems in Rome, Milan, and Naples.
There was some skepticism about the practicality of the idea among the local newspapers, with one declaring: "the Romans love the quiet life and don't want to be disturbed by things that have nothing to do with them".
Programming consisted of news, including stock exchange reports and information about the Italian Parliament, religious services, time signals, and language courses.
A subscribers directory from 1912 listed numerous prominent individuals, including Italy's Queen Elena, plus a listening station located at the Camera dei Deputati legislative building.