Orelhão

Orelhão (Portuguese pronunciation: [oɾeˈʎɐ̃w] Big Ear; plural: Orelhões Portuguese pronunciation: [oɾeˈʎõjs]), officially Telefone de Uso Público (Public Use Telephone) is the name given to the protector for public telephones designed by Chinese Brazilian architect and designer Chu Ming Silveira. It was created on April 4, 1972, and it was initially used in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Later, they became present everywhere in Brazil, as well as in other Latin American countries such as Cuba, Peru, Colombia and Paraguay, in African countries like Angola and Mozambique, in China, and in other parts of the world.

Background

The installation of the first public payphones in Brazil dates from the 1920s, when the population of the country at that time was around 30.6 million inhabitants. Equipped with a token box and adapted to a common device, these semi-public telephones were found in commercial establishments that signed a contract with Companhia Telefônica Brasileira (Brazilian Telephone Company), a company that was then responsible for telephone services in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais.

Actual public payphones only appeared on Brazilian streets in mid-1971, when more than 93 million people were living in the country and mobile phones had not been created yet. The first cell phone would only be released two years later, being available to very few people.