Yeah, initial phones in the late 19th century were only connected only between two points. Like, I don't know, between the Mayor's house and the police station, for example. Early 20th century, operator rooms became a thing. You would speak to operators, they would ask you were to connect you too, then they would plug your cable to the destination. Which was still very limited as it was hard to connect between cities, much less between countries. In the 1970s and 1980s, telephone routers really automated the whole thing. :)