For many Americans, trying to envision life without our various telephones would be like trying to live without indoor plumbing. The crucial utility is 140 years old today. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first, local, telephone call in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over a wire to his assistant in the next room, Bell said, “Mister Watson, come here; I want to see you.” Only when Bell improved his invention to carry a voice for several miles did the public discover a need for them. Now, the public has an insatiable appetite for multipurpose phones, and there are 98 cell phone subscriptions for every 100 people in the population. Of America’s 117 million occupied housing units, just 2.7 million, or under 2.4 percent, have no phone service available. Profile America is in its19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.