Telewriting was an evolution of telegraphy. Instead of transmitting the message in Morse code, the sender typed the message on a keyboard. It then reached the recipient as regular text on paper.

The first solution for telewriting came as early as 1850 but was not practically usable.

In 1942, SJ established a trial connection between the railway board's electrical engineering bureau and the work manager's office in Nässjö. The test device was manufactured by Lorentz and designed for form printing. Overall, the test was successful.

However, it wasn't until 1950 that the first official telewriting connection, Stockholm–Malmö, was established at SJ. The expansion then progressed rapidly.

Initially, district offices and certain bureaus at the Railway Board received teletypers. Travel agencies in Stockholm and Gothenburg were also involved from the outset. In Stockholm, a telewriting center was established next to the telephone exchange so that incoming telegrams could be forwarded throughout the country.