Telephone calls began being made in Spain in the late 19th century, around the time when the state took control of phone services, which in turn granted the operation of the service to private bodies. In the early and mid 20th century, Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España (CTNE) effectively monopolised Spanish telecommunications, which was founded in 1924. The same year, a submarine telephone cable connecting
Algeciras with the territory of
Ceuta facilitated cross-strait communication during the
Rif War. In 1926, two
switchboards were set up in
Santander and
Madrid, the latter by
Alfonso XIII. During his rule,
Francisco Franco became a major shareholder in CTNE, and recentralised state control of telecommunications. In 1957, the Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona fibre optic cable was installed. However, public telephones were not installed until the 1960s. As of 2015, there were around 25,000 remaining public phones in Spain. ==Telephones (landline and cellular)==