Ringing in the changes

Aug 1 2006 By Evening Gazette

Most people probably think that their lives - both work-wise and personal - would grind to a halt without continual access to a phone.

A vital part of business today is being able to keep in regular touch with staff wherever they are.

And thanks to the advance of the mobile network and ever more sophisticated phones, those on the move can be contacted and make contact 24/7.

Former MP Tony Benn touched on this subject during Radio Four's Sentimental Journey programme at the weekend.

One of his reminiscences involved his grandfather, who back in the 1890s - I think that was the date he said - was advocating how important the telephone network would become to people's lives.

He even predicted that in the future people would use the phone to do their shopping - a view that must have been thought of as quite outrageous at the time.

The world of telecommunications has changed radically even in my lifetime - I am in my mid-forties.

When I was a child, phones had yet to make a huge impact.

In fact many households did not have a phone line installed. And even those that did often had to have what was called "a party line".

This meant that you shared a connection with someone who lived nearby.

So on occasions when you picked up the phone to dial out, you could hear your neighbour talking and you had to wait until they had finished before you could make your call.

Later on, when I became a reporter, if you were out on a story a priority was locating a phone box so once you had done an interview you could phone copy over to meet deadline.

How times have changed.

Now the majority of homes have telephone extensions in several rooms, cordless phones so you can talk anywhere in the house, millions of people, from kids to pensioners, own a mobile phone and people can connect with the office from all over using a laptop computer.