The first post office in Iowa was established at Augusta in 1836. Mail service developed slowly with the spread of population, and rural free delivery of mail did not begin until 1897.
The first telegraph line was built between Burlington and Bloomington (now Muscatine) in 1848. Telegraph service throughout the state is provided by Western Union. In 2001, about 97.2% of all occupied housing units had telephones.
Among the first educational radio broadcasting stations in the US was one established in 1919 at the State University in Iowa City and another in 1921 at Iowa State University in Ames. The first commercial radio station west of the Mississippi, WDC at Davenport, began broadcasting in 1921. In 2003 there were 112 major radio stations, including 38 AM stations and 74 FM stations. In the same year, Iowa had a total of 21 network television stations.
A total of 34,789 Internet domain names were registered in the state in 2000.