In pictures: India's dying telegram service

A customer (foreground L) fills in a form for sending out a message using the telegraphic service at a telecommunications office in Bangalore

India's 160-year old telegram service will be discontinued on 15 July because of falling business. Telegrams were a popular and quick way of communication before phone services improved and became cheaper and mobile phones revolutionised communication in the country.

A derelict name board for the Bangalore Telegraph office lies on the ground outside the telecommunications office premises in Bangalore

Today there are around 75 state-run telegram centres in India employing some 1,000 people. Many of them are in a dilapidated condition.

Employees feed in telegram messages onto computers to be sent via telegraph at a telecommunications office in Bangalore

Officials say only around 5,000 telegrams are sent every day from the centres. Most are sent by government departments, businessmen and others to inform relatives of a death in the family, officials say.

Employees at the phonogram section transcribe voice messages from customers, which will then be sent to the the receiving party as a telegram, at a telecommunications office in Bangalore

Until the mid 1990s journalists would sometimes send in their reports from the field on telegrams. One newspaper editor remembered that one of his stories sent by telegram ran into "22 sheets of paper with many undecipherable words and took three hours to retype" on the editorial desk.

A customer fills in a form for sending out a message using the telegraphic service at a telecommunications office in Bangalore

In 2011, the government raised domestic telegram charges for the first time in 60 years. Today, a customer has to pay 27 rupees (46 cents) per 50 words.

An employee feeds in a telegram message onto a computer to be sent via telegraph at a telecommunications office in Bangalore

The services were also modernised: messages are now fed into a computer and the telegrams are computer generated messages which are delivered by postmen in the cities and villages.

An employee sorts incoming telegrams printed on a continuous sheet of paper at a telecommunications office in Bangalore on June 13, 2013

A telegram office worker looks at incoming telegraphs being printed on a sheet of paper.

An employee displays an antique telegraph transmitter key (R), which the operator uses to send messages using Morse code, and a telegraph receiver (L) at a telecommunications office in Bangalore on June 13, 2013

Telegram services opened in India in 1854, four years after the first electric telegraph line between Calcutta city and the suburb of Diamond Harbour.

An Indian staff member, foreground, of central telegraph office dispatches telegrams in Mumbai, India, Friday, June 14, 2013

Officials plan to give a "ceremonial farewell" to the services next month by keeping the last telegram sent on 15 July in a museum.