日治時期新通訊工具電話傳入臺灣後，於1900年正式開放給一般民眾申請裝設。若以每年電話用戶增加量和申請未開通量的多寡來看，可以1918年作為分界點，對於總督府來說，1918年前、後期用戶申請電話所遭遇到的問題有很大的不同。1919年以後出現申請後未能開通的問題，是臺灣電話發展上的一大難題和阻礙。由於日本本土於1890年開辦一般民眾的電話業務，因此臺灣在電話申請法規上主要參照日本國內。但有時臺灣總督府僅將本土的法令照搬到臺灣，並未衡量臺灣的電話發展與日本國內的落差，不免會對電話擴張產生不良影響。1932年參考日本國內法規而施行的「臺灣電話特別開通規則」，是比以前更為澈底的使用者負擔。此後，每年有償開通（加入者負擔）的加入者已多於順序開通制度下的無償開通者，可說是申請加入制度的一大改變。進入戰時體制後，電話申請數量比起先前有不小的擴張，但僅限定官廳、公署、公共利益上或供增強戰力事業等申請使用，一般民眾或商工業用戶未必有增加，其中臺灣人尤其受到影響。整體而言，以日本中央政府與臺灣總督府面對民眾申請電話的態度相比，可看出總督府對電話用戶擴張的態度是較為消極的。

The introduction of new communication means of telephone from Japan to Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period was formally opened for common people to subscribe to in 1900. As seen from the yearly increase in telephone subscribers and those who failed in their applications, the year around 1919 seemed to be a watershed as far as Taiwan's Government-General was concerned. As Japan's domestic telephone business available to the common people had first started much early in 1890, it was natural that Taiwan's later colonial telephone subscribers and the applicable law should in many ways have followed the patterns in Japan, as witnessed in what Taiwan's Government-General's one-time attempt to so copy them, without paying much attention to the quite difference in the phrases of development in the two territories. In comparison with those cases in Japan, it could be said that Taiwan's Government-General took a more negative attitude towards the subscription and expansion of telephones by the common people in Taiwan.