Meaning – The term Post Telephone and Telegraph Administration, refers to an organization, usually a government department, that provides communication common carrier services in countries other than the USA and Canada. Examples of PTTs are the Bundespost in Germany and the Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Public Corporation in Japan.
In countries that had a PTT unit of government, typically the vast majority of forms of distribution of information fell under the auspices of the PTT, whether that be the delivery of printed publications and individual letters in the postal mail, the transmission of telephonic audio, or the transmission of telegraphic on-off signals, and in some countries, the broadcast of one-way (audio) radio and (audio-video) television signals.
Example of usage – “In North America, instead of a PTT there was the private monopoly Bell System /Bell Canada is responsible for telecommunications and a separate federally run US Postal Service/Canada Post for mail delivery.”
