It was February 19, 1990, when the Telecommunications Museum opened its doors to the public for the first time, in the building that housed the Urban Centre of Kifissia, at 25 Proteos Street.

The first attempts to establish a Telecommunications Museum were made in 1971, when a committee of OTE and ELTA employees raised the issue of creating a "Museum of Telecommunications and Postal Systems". Years of delay followed, until in 1987 the OTE Board of Directors decided to establish a Museum of Telecommunications Systems Materials.

The Museum initially functioned as an exhibition of telecommunications equipment, being 'the first step towards the completion of the Telecommunications Museum of OTE'. The exhibition was housed on the second floor of the present Museum and included, among other things, the telegraphic installations that had been installed in Syros in 1859 to establish the Syros-Piraeus-Athens-Aigio-Patras telegraphic connection, manual telephone sets dating back to 1892, automatic telephone sets from 1931, as well as one of the first television studios to operate in Greece.

Inaugurating the exhibition, OTE's Director General, Kyriakos Kyoulafas, pointed out that "the material on display, which is now available to Greek youth in order to function as a living school of communication, has been rotting in the organisation's warehouses for years". It was Stelios Polycrates, Deputy Director of the Sub-Directorate for the Maintenance of Radio Systems, who in 1984 began systematically collecting old, now technologically obsolete, telecommunications equipment, with the aim of protecting and preserving it. Within a short period of time, an "Instrument Showroom" was set up in the building of the above mentioned Sub-Directorate, at 3 Fokionos Negri Street.

In the context of the inauguration, Inaugurating the exhibition, OTE's Director General, Kyriakos Kyoulafas, pointed out that "the material on display, which is now available to Greek youth in order to function as a living school of communication, has been rotting in the organisation's warehouses for years". It was Stelios Polycrates, Deputy Director of the Sub-Directorate for the Maintenance of Radio Systems, who in 1984 began systematically collecting old, now technologically obsolete, telecommunications equipment, with the aim of protecting and preserving it. Within a short period of time, an "Instrument Showroom" was set up in the building of the above mentioned Sub-Directorate, at 3 Fokionos Negri Street.

In the context of the inauguration, St. Polycrates, from his position as the Museum's director, focused on the educational orientation of the new institution: "Our most important goal is for the Museum to become an educational hive for pupils, students and employees of OTE, so that the young people can acquire telecommunications awareness, an essential recognition of the important work that OTE offers".

During its first period of operation, the Museum was mainly addressed to organised groups of pupils, students and students and was open every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 to 12 in the morning, while every Wednesday it was open from 5-7 in the afternoon.

Having been in operation for 35 years, the Museum continues to write its own history and tell the story of the continuous evolution of telecommunications, while highlighting its impact on society over time. A visit to the Telecommunications Museum gives the public the opportunity to understand the importance of telecommunications and to appreciate the contribution of OTE Group to the technological progress of our country.

The photos from the left:

1. Snapshot from the opening of the Museum. From the left, Kyriakos Kyoulafas, CEO of OTE (1989-1990), Bishop Chrysostomos of Dodoni and Stelios Polycrates, founder and first director of the Museum. (photo by Nikos Floros)
2. The cover of the two-panel brochure created on the occasion of the Telecommunications Equipment Exhibition, which preceded the Museum's foundation.
3. The first page from the Museum's visitors' book. Among other comments, there is that of Bishop Chrysostomos of Dodoni, who performed the consecration at the opening ceremony, and the CEO of OTE, Kyriakos Kyoulafas.