Companhia Telefônica Brasileira (CTB) was a Brazilian fixed-line telephone company that provided services to the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, as well as Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo through its subsidiaries CTMG and CTES.

[1][2] On November 15, 1879, Pedro II granted Charles Paul Mackie, Bell Labs' representative in Rio de Janeiro, the first authorization in Brazil to operate telephone services through Decree No.

In February, a deal was signed with a German company, which provisionally installed a telephone exchange in the city until the Central Station was inaugurated on November 3, 1899, in a building on Tiradentes Square.

In 1896, the Rede Telefônica Bragantina, which lasted 15 years and served 98 cities in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, was created in Bragança Paulista.

16.222 of November 28, 1923 authorized the company to continue operating in Brazil and allowed the translation of the name into Portuguese as Companhia Telefônica Brasileira (CTB).

At the firm's request, the inauguration ceremony was held at the Catete Palace and attended by President Getúlio Vargas and Minister of Foreign Affairs Oswaldo Aranha, who called Carlos Martins, the Brazilian ambassador in Washington.

[36][37] The manual telephone exchanges in Jacarepaguá, Marechal Hermes, Bangu, Campo Grande, Santa Cruz, Ilha do Governador and Paquetá became automated in 1965 when they began to be operated by Companhia Estadual de Telefones da Guanabara (CETEL).

[118] In 1958, CTB inaugurated the first long-distance automatic direct dialing system (DDD) in Latin America between the cities of São Paulo and Santos using coaxial cables.

Huber, in exchange for the exclusive rights to sell advertisements, offered to publish the list of subscribers and the Yellow Pages free of charge.

The magazine dealt with subjects such as news, cultural aspects, activities in the telephony sector and social notes related to the company.

The authority to set prices remained divided between the three branches of government and prevented the uniform establishment of technical and economic criteria.

Communication to most of the states was via radiotelegraph and radiotelephone services, mostly run by foreign concessionaires (Telégrafo Nacional, Radiobrás, Radional, Western, All América and Italcable).

Dissatisfaction with the service provided led the government to authorize the creation of local telephone companies in several cities with the intention of implementing automatic exchanges.

It also lost licences in Caçapava to COTESP, Cubatão and Suzano to CTBC, and in other cities such as Aparecida, Atibaia, Cotia, Itanhaém and Ourinhos.

[135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142][110] On November 28, 1956, during the Kubitschek government, the Brazilian Telephone Company was nationalized and officially named Companhia Telefônica Brasileira by Decree No.

[143] In 1962, the Brazilian Telecommunications Code was instituted by President João Goulart amid a strong nationalist campaign against the Brascan group and other foreign companies.

On March 31, 1962, the federal government, in contact with CTB's management since December 1961 regarding its purchase, decreed intervention in the company for a period of six months, which was extended successively until 1966.

[131][144][145] Although the Castelo Branco government expressed an interest in opening up opportunities for private capital to participate in the sector, it ended up nationalizing CTB after extensive negotiations with the Brascan group.

The Brazilian Constitution of 1967 created the Ministry of Communications, which surveyed the telephony situation in Brazil, launched a plan for emergency and long-term solutions and divided CTB's area of operation, assigning it the responsibility of serving the states of Guanabara and Rio de Janeiro.

Contracts were signed for the installation of automatic networks in 36 cities, including 19 where the telephone system was automated with 5005 crossbar exchanges (Plessey) equipped for DDD and one-digit prefixes.

[189] In 1970, after the implementation of the expansion plan, CTB launched the "vilafones", public telephones placed in commercial houses and residences situated in low-income neighborhoods.

331 of May 26, 1972 accredited CTB as a pole company in the states of São Paulo, Guanabara and Rio de Janeiro, in accordance with the guidelines and policy of unifying the telephone system adopted by the Ministry of Communications.

CTB began to concentrate on expanding and modernizing services in the area formed by the states of Guanabara and Rio de Janeiro.