Mobile Telephony - LBC Post.

This week's Loose Blogger's Consortium topic is mobile telephony, suggested by that prolific blogger from Pune, Rummuser

I'm only fifty years young, but I remember a time, not so long ago, when telephones were as rare as hen's teeth in my neck of the woods. i'm talking about Dublin back in the seventies. It was quite the status symbol, having what is now known as a landline in your house.  I remember that there was great excitement in our house when I was just a teen and my mother applied for a telephone.  Our delight was somewhat dampened by the fact that we were told that we would only be able to get a phone when the Posts & Telegraph workers were working in our area - which, apparently, wouldn't be any time soon.  Until then, we had to use our neighbour's phone in matters of dire necessity, or failing that, the public telephone nearest our house, provided it was working.

Eventually, our number came up and we got our phone.  I still remember our first  telephone number.  We were so thrilled with ourselves.  The only drawback was that phoneless neighbours who were friendly with us now came to use our telephone in their times of necessity.  Ah, no one minds doing anyone a favour and we'd disturbed our own neighbours often enough before we got our own phone, but it was a bit of a pain when you were relaxing in front of the television and you had to get up to oblige someone.  Then some Traveller people stopped nearby used an open field nearby as a halting site.  Having no telephones and no water, they would knock on our door time and time again for a bucket of water or to use the phone.  They were very dignified and well mannered people and looking back now, I think it must have been so degrading for them to have to beg for what after all is the right of every citizen.  Water and the use of a telephone.  In fairness, they didn't ask to use the telephone very often, only when one of them was in hospital having a baby, which back in those days of pre-family planning Ireland, seemed to be almost every other week.  I'm twenty years away from Ireland, but I do hope the condition of the Traveller community has improved.  

I remember when I was in Ireland just over twenty years ago, mobile phones had begun to appear, but they were very expensive to make calls from and they were quite large.  When I first came out to India from Dublin twenty years ago, making a phone call home was a very big deal.  My husband had to take me out to a Public Call Office (PCO) and that was quite an outing.  And from there, to the mobile phone of today.  And not just the mobile, the smartphone.  The advances in telephone are really quite exciting.  I can now make free phone calls to my friend who lives in Fiji and to friends and relatives in Ireland.

I can carry a phone in my handbag and that in itself is so significant. Who would have thought it?  I know I couldn't have.

This is my weekly post for the Loose Bloggers Consortium, a diverse, worldwide group of bloggers who post weekly on the same topic.  I have left links to other LBC bloggers in the actual post and have put the names and links to fellow LBC bloggers in the sidebar.  Not all our LBC bloggers post every week, but if you're looking for some interesting blogs to read, you are most welcome to visit my friends.  You may even find some alternative takes on the current topic of  MOBILE TELEPHONY.