What telephone greeting did Alexander Graham Bell originally suggest?

Alexander Graham Bell, the Scottish-born innovator credited with patenting the first commercial telephone, originally suggested ‘Ahoy-hoy’ as the standard greeting when answering the telephone. ‘Ahoy’ had been around at least 100 years longer than ‘hello’, and its nautical origins along with common usage as a greeting made it a strong candidate.

The de facto telephone greeting we know and use today was solidified after the first telephone books sanctioned ‘hello’ as the official greeting in their authoritative 'How To...' sections. ‘Hello’ quickly eclipsed ‘ahoy’, but Bell insisted upon answering the phone with ‘ahoy’ for the rest of his life.

In pop culture, 'The Simpsons’ Mr. Burns also answers the telephone as Mr. Bell intended.