The long-distance telephone call, without the help of an operator, has now turned 50.

The first call was made by the Queen on December 5, 1958 from the central telephone exchange in Bristol to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh. The Queen began the call with the words "This is the Queen speaking from Bristol. Good afternoon, my Lord Provost".

Some of the original engineers are returning to the exchange to re-enact the call with Richard Pyle, deputy Lord Lieutenant of Bristol, who was a telecoms engineer at the time of the first call. But instead of using a traditional dial phone as used by the Queen, they will use video-conferencing technology to see, as well as talk to, Edinburgh.

Brian Fox, a fresh faced engineer who had only finished his apprenticeship three months before, stood only feet from the Queen when she made that historic call.

"It was one of the most important days ever in telecommunications history and a huge amount of work went into making sure the day went without a hitch. The walkway from Telephone Avenue was tented and full of flowers and a powder room for the Queen was hastily provided in a converted control room.

"We stood between rows of equipment as close as we could get and watched Her Majesty dial the number. When it was all over and the Queen was leaving the Duke of Edinburgh remarked, 'you can relax now chaps, it all works'!"

The call by the Queen was a major milestone in the history of communications. Subscriber Trunk Dialling allowed Bristol customers for the first time to dial many other parts of the UK without an operator. International subscriber dialling was introduced in March 1963, when London subscribers were able to dial Paris numbers directly.

As well as easier calling, the new dialling system resulted in much cheaper call charges. Under the old operator-based system, the Queen's call – lasting 2 minutes 5 seconds – would have cost 3s 9d (19p), but the direct call only 10d (4p).

Source: The Telegraph, 5th December, 2008

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