In the early forties of the 20th century, Western Union has used the first time a commercial intercity microwave transmission system. 1998 - the number of points of money transfers worldwide reached 50,000. The network of money transfers of Western Union is the world's largest. Thanks to cooperation with Western Union the Associated Press at the end of the XIX century took almost monopolistic position in the U.S. market news. The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.