Long distance.

About 15-20 years ago, Sprint did something extraordinary. They came out with a promotion that long distance calls would be priced at a dime a minute anywhere in the United States. A dime a minute. That was an incredible rate; on top of that, they claimed the clarity was so great, you could hear a pin drop.

When I was in college, I would often get a call from my folks and if they did call, the yelling of the initials, “L.D” would race through the halls of our fraternity. L.D. or long distance, was not a dime, not even close to a dime---more like .50 cents or higher.

Why? There really was no competition in the form of another carrier---we had GTE---or cell phones, phone cards, or anything like that. When you had a long distance call you talked fast and you made sure it was not one that lasted too long. Get this, we actually wrote letters so we could spend more time discussing what we needed to talk about. I know, it is shocking isn’t it?

I remember when I first put AOL on a computer. I learned that through this system called the “world wide web” you could travel to countries all over the globe, and either obtain information or get this---talk on line. It brought the world together---it was not long distance as we knew it, it was the internet.

In 1994 I got my first cell phone. It was big, bulky and it was restrictive. Want to make a call when you are outside your area? You had what were called “roaming charges.” You not only paid for the minutes used, but you paid a fee to use a different carriers lines. It would add hundreds if not thousands of dollars to yearly phone bills. There were stories of people receiving phone bills of more than a thousand dollars and they had no idea how this could have happened. It did.

Life has changed. Now we have long distance that is part of your monthly bill---at least for us it is---and the fear that once would restrict people from using their cell phones is almost non-existent. The majority of our phone bill shows texting as the biggest user of the phone---wisely we have an unlimited package. If not, we would not be able to handle the amount of texting that takes place.

The photo above is of telephone poles in the country. I believe they will be with us for years to come because they must serve a different purpose than just land-line calls. Sure there are still billions of calls made on a traditional phone, but like the postal service there has been a dramatic shift in how people talk. The cell phone is now the smart phone and the smart phone makes you look smart---at least to those who don’t know what it can do for them.

Thanks for stopping by.