They say that some of the greatest discoveries are created almost by accident.

The same can be said for Colin Stone's idea to create Telegrams Canada, this country's only telegram company.

The avid antique technology collector was surfing eBay back in 2000 when he stumbled on someone selling some old telegraph equipment. He snatched it up and added it to his growing collection of telephones and computers.

The experience no doubt planted a seed, which sprouted the following year while Stone was riding the train to London from Toronto.

Michael Lea, Business Edge
Colin Stone combined the idea of the venerable telegraph with the power of the computer and came up with Telegrams Canada, a company that is growing by leaps and bounds.

"I noticed all the way down there these telegraph lines all along the railway - they were all knocked over," he says.

After a little research, Stone discovered that Canada's telegram service had been decommissioned. AT&T left the business in 1999 because the market for the more than 160-year-old form of communication was too small.

The infrastructure and the number of staff required to deliver telegrams all over the world was too expensive in the face of competition from telephones and fax machines, e-mail and mobile phone text messaging.

A computer consultant and marketing specialist, Stone began wondering if there was a way to use existing technologies to redevelop a feasible Canadian telegram service.

"So that's what I did," he says. "With none of our own equipment, trucks - nothing - we are able to use existing telecommunications technology in order to provide the same traditional telegram service that we have had in Canada since the 1840s."

Because of his computer background, Stone was able to do all the technological work himself - something he could never have afforded to pay somebody else to do.

Using only two computers, Stone and his wife Willow Kinvera started the business in 2003 in a bedroom in their former home in Peterborough. They have since moved to Kingston, but still operate the business out of their home.

The first telegram order came in March 2003, before Stone had even listed his website with any search engines. The business is now growing by 75 per cent each year and the couple expects to move the business out of their home and hire a part-time person to handle the phone by the end of the year.

Telegrams Canada started as a nationwide telegram operation, servicing customers who placed orders using its website (www.telegrams.ca), but soon began sending telegrams worldwide.

Things got a bounce in late January when U.S.-based Western Union announced it was leaving the telegram business.

In its busiest year, 1929, Western Union sent 200 million telegrams around the world. But last year, Western Union, whose main line of business is now money transfers, handled only 20,000 telegrams.

Telegrams Canada sent just 3,000 telegrams last year. But it was enough to carry the two-person business.

And when Western Union stopped sending telegrams, Stone and Kinvera became so busy that they had to temporarily stop taking new customers because they couldn't handle the increase in demand.

Despite such challenges, Stone didn't waste any time taking advantage of Western Union's departure.

His brother, John Feinman, has set up an American division in Beverley Hills, Calif.

Together, they'll launch a U.S. website later this month called International Telegram Service at www.itelegram.com, which will compete with the existing U.S. telegram service American Telegram.

To send a telegram overseas, customers tap in a message on the company's website or dictate it over the phone. About half the customers find the company in the phone book while the other half find them online, Stone says.

The messages are sent via the Internet to other countries, where they're routed through the international telegram service provided by U.K.-based TelegramsOnline and delivered by the local post office or courier within hours.

It costs a minimum of $46 to send a 15-word message and each additional word costs $1.20 - no more than sending flowers, Stone says.

Many of the telegrams are sent to the United Kingdom, Italy and Eastern Europe, especially the Balkans where much of the population lives in small villages. In many of those villages, there aren't a lot of homes with phones and electricity, but there are telegram offices every couple of blocks.

"If there is a family emergency, it's a critical service for a lot of people who live in places like that," Stone says, adding that a letter would take weeks to arrive from overseas.

Industry observers are intrigued by Telegrams Canada's success and see the attraction that still exists, but wonder if demand for telegram services will wilt altogether.

Ken Wong, a marketing professor at the Queen's school of business, sees how businesses would be attracted to the paper trail that telegrams provide, while individuals may like its ceremonial function.

"Notice given by a telegram is probably easier to prove it's authenticity than one delivered via fax or e-mail," Wong says. "You can trace back who sent it, but with an e-mail you can always say it was sent by a hacker and you can always blame your fax machine."

In Wong's generation and earlier, it was common for someone to stand up at a wedding reception and read a telegram from someone who lived far away and wanted to send their best wishes. Such a salutation wouldn't resonate the same way as a note passed from a telephone message or a printout of an e-mail.

But Wong wonders about the longevity of the telegram with younger generations who may not have even heard of this method of communication, once the world's most popular way of transmitting messages long distances. "That may be the reason AT&T and Western Union are opting out - they may only see it as a 10- or 20-year business," he says.

Stone isn't all that worried.

"It's surprising how much of our business is young people who have only ever seen a telegram in an old movie or on TV," he says.

In addition, with the constant arrival of new communications technology, telegrams continue to stand out as special, so a lot of people are using them for business.

"It's hard to make your message sort of pop in this day and age," he says. "If someone's done a sales presentation or a job interview, they'll send a telegram now because no matter how many e-mails this person gets, the telegram is going to be the thing that catches their attention first."

(Frank Armstrong can be reached at armstrong@businessedge.ca)