清光緒二十五年 (1899),電報官局兼辦了只供衙署官邸使用的電話。這是中國電話之始。庚子年間，在八國聯(lián)軍侵略中被毀。同年，丹商璞爾生在各占領(lǐng)國領(lǐng)事團(tuán)的支持下，在天津維多利亞胡同(今大沽路新成里)3號，非法設(shè)立電鈴公司，自英租界架線至塘沽； 次年，又延伸到北京，經(jīng)營電話電報業(yè)務(wù)，侵犯中國電信主權(quán)。
北洋大臣袁世凱為了與電鈴公司抗?fàn)?，委派日本技師吉田正秀勘察架設(shè)電話線。光緒三十年九月二十七日 (1904年11月4日),由天津電話局總辦，自北京架至天津總車站(今北站),與城區(qū)電話銜接。這是中國自建的第一條長途電話線。也是天津電話局的發(fā)端。電話局的總辦由張振棨兼任。
當(dāng)時，天津電話發(fā)展很快，璞爾生電鈴公司的用戶紛紛改用天津局的電話，使該公司入不敷出。為了維護(hù)中國電信主權(quán)，統(tǒng)一電話管理，經(jīng)張振棨等人與璞爾生反復(fù)交涉，簽訂了收購合同，確定于光緒三十一年二月二十七日(1905年4月1日),由中國電報局將電鈴公司接收管理； 給予璞爾生天津行平化寶銀5萬兩，平均分5次交付，分二年半期限給清； 聘請璞爾生為顧問官，月薪英洋800元，合同3年，聽從中國電報局總辦的差遣，與天津各工部局及北京各國公使商辦交接事宜； 代為照料該公司的電話事務(wù)。
光緒三十二年八月(1906年10月),天津電報局將璞爾生代管的各局機(jī)器、桿線、物料及一切工程線路、出入款項等，造冊結(jié)算清楚； 該公司所設(shè)的塘沽、紫竹林、河北、楊村4處分局，由天津局接管，其余河西務(wù)、通州、北京西城3處分局，由北京局接管。
光緒三十三年七月 (1907年8月),隨著電話業(yè)務(wù)的發(fā)展，天津電話局與電報局同在一處辦公，辦公房不夠使用。于是電話局在閘口街(今榮吉大街)購買北洋煙草公司房屋一所，便遷入此處辦公和營業(yè)。
宣統(tǒng)元年七月 (1909年8月),郵傳部委命楊毓璋任天津電話局總辦，從此不再由電報局總辦兼任。

·20世紀(jì)20年代使用的電話機(jī)

1913年11月，天津電話局在閘口街原址，拆舊改新所建設(shè)的大樓落成，稱天津電話總局。1914年8月，總局改裝共電式若干交換機(jī)4000門竣工通話。隨著用戶逐年增加，1918年已達(dá)3000余戶，實占容量趨于飽和，尚有待裝者400余戶。于是又在英租界(今煙臺道)購置空地，籌建電話南局，1921年8月建成通話。
1925年天津電話局開始實行更換自動機(jī)計劃。1926年11月，因為總局準(zhǔn)備改裝自動機(jī)，房屋不夠使用，于是將局機(jī)關(guān)各課股，遷移到南電話分局辦公，改總局為中局。1927年10月1日，在意租界四馬路(今光復(fù)道) ,建成天津電話東局(后改稱四局),這是中國自建的第一個自動電話局。
1928年5月，電話南局(后改稱三局)更換自動機(jī)竣工。同年9月1日，電話中局改裝自動機(jī)通話，定名二局。其保留的人工機(jī)部分，定名五局。1929年11月13日，電話北局(定名六局)在河北月緯路裝竣通話。至此，天津電話局共有二、三、四、五、六等5個分局，交換機(jī)總?cè)萘窟_(dá)到15600門，其中自動機(jī)9000門。這時，天津自動電話發(fā)展之快居全國之首。根據(jù)交通部《電話局章程》規(guī)定，天津電話局為一等局。下設(shè)業(yè)務(wù)、工務(wù)、事務(wù)3課，課下設(shè)若干股，分理各事。

·1913年建成的天津電話局閘口新局

In 1899(the 25th year of Emperor Guangxu),theTelegraph Bureau began to deal with telephone servicethat had been available only to Yamens,governmentoffices and homes of officials. This was the start oftelephone service in Tianjin. However,the TelegraphBureau was destroyed in 1900. In the same year,abusinessman from Denmark illegally set up the ElectricRing Company in Victorian Lane in Tianjin (nowXincheng Lane in Dagu Road) with the support ofconsulates of occupying countries. He put up wires fromthe British concession to Tanggu. In the next year,heextended the wires to Beijing. In this way,he dealt withtelephone and telegraph services in China,infringing thetelecommunication sovereignty of China.
To compete with the Electric Ring Company,YuanShikai entrusted a Japanese technician to investigateand to put up telephone wires. In November 4,1904 (the30th year of Emperor Guangxu),under the directionof Tianjin Telephone Bureau,wires were put up fromBeijing to Tianjin General Station (now the NorthStation),joining those in Tianjin city zone. This was thefirst long distance telephone line put up by China,whichmarked the beginning of Tianjin Telephone Bureau`sbusiness. The director of Tianjin Telephone Bureau wasZhang Zhenzhao.
After that,telephones spred quickly in Tianjin.Many customers fromt Electric Ring Companybecame customers of Tianjin Telephone Bureau. TheElectric Ring Company quickly went bankrupt. Tomaintain telecommunication sovereignty and to puttelephone management under the name of TianjinTelephone Bureau,Zhang Zhengzhao signed a purchasecontract with the Denmark businessman.after repeatednegotiations. The contract prescribes that: 1) On April1st 1905 (the 31st year of Emperor Guangxu),ChinaTelephone Bureau took over the management of TheElectric Ring Company. 2) China Telephone Bureau paidto The Electric Ring Company 50,000 Liang of silver.The payment would be paid five times within two anda half years. 3) The Electric Ring Company employedthe Denmark businessman as the counselor with themonthly payment of 800 pounds and the contract termof 3 years. He must report to the General TechnologyOffice of China Telephone Bureau. He was responsiblefor negotiating with involved departments of Tianjinand foreign legations in Beijing about handover matters.He was also responsible for telephone service of ChinaTelephone Bureau.
In October 1906 (the 32nd year of EmperorGuangxu),Tianjin Telegraph Bureau settled themachines; materials,engineering lines,income andexpenses. Its Tanggu,Zizhulin,Hebei and Yangcuntelephone exchanges were taken over by TianjinTelephone Bureau,and Hexiwu,Tongzhou and the westBeijing exchanges were taken over by Beijing TelephoneBureau.
In August 1907 (the 33rd year of EmperorGuangxu),with the development of telephone services,Tianjin Telephone Bureau found it crowded to shareoffices with Tianjin Telegraph Bureau. Therefore,itpurchased a house from the Northern Tobacco Companyat Yingkou Street (now Rongji Street) and moved herefor offices and service.
In August 1909 (the 1st year of EmperorXuantong),the Telecommunication and TransportationMinistry of the royal government appointed YangMinzhang as the general manager of Tianjin TelephoneBureau that shared a general manager with TianjinTelegraph Bureau.
In November 1913,Tianjin Telephone Bureaucompleted the renovation of its building in ZhakouStreet,called Tianjin Telephone Bureau General. InAugust 1914,the Bureau General reassembled 4000common-power switches for telephone service. With theincrease of telephone users,the occupation had reachedalmost 100% of the capacity when the number of usersreached more than 3000 and there were still more than400 users to be installed in 1918. Under this situation,the Bureau General purchased an empty land in theBritish concession (now Yantai Road) to build TianjinSouthern Telephone Bureau which was completed theconstruction and started its service in August 1921.
In 1925 Tianjin Telephone Bureau Generalprepared to replace switches with automatic exchanges.Therefore,part of its office moved to Tianjin SouthernTelephone Bureau and was renamed as Tianjin MiddleTelephone Bureau. In October 1,1927,the first automatictelephone exchange was built by Tianjin EasternTelephone Bureau (renamed Tianjin No. 4 TelephoneBureau later) in Si Road (now Guangfu Street) in theItaly concession.
In May 1928,Tianjin Southern Telephone Bureau(renamed as Tianjin No.3 Telephone Bureau later)completed its replacement of automatic exchanges.In the same year,in September 1,Tianjin MiddleTelephone Bureau (renamed as Tianjin No.2 TelephoneBureau later) completed its replacement of automaticexchanges and part of it with manual telephones wasnamed as Tianjin No. 5 Telephone Bureau. In November13,1929,Tianjin Northern Telephone Bureau (renamedas Tianjin No.6 Telephone Bureau) was completed forservice in Yuewei Road in Hebei District. Until thenthere were five branch exchanges for Tianjin TelephoneBureau. It altogether had an exchange capacity of 15600switches,among which 9000 was automatic. Automatictelephone service was developed fastest in Tianjinin China. According to Constitution of TelephoneExchanges issued by Ministry of Transportation,TianjinTelephone Bureau was the primary bureau with threedivisions,service,technology and support. There werealso many departments under the three divisions dealingwith different matters.