They mostly did, but the limit on distance is pretty tight - according to Wikipedia [0] local loops were limited to 5 km in length (without extra equipment). I

They mostly did, but the limit on distance is pretty tight - according to Wikipedia [0] local loops were limited to 5 km in length (without extra equipment). I imagine that Stockholm's system here both started early and was in a very dense neighborhood of Stockholm, where direct wiring like this was still a tenable solution. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_old_telephone_service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_old_telephone_service