Growing up in the 50s, 60 and 70s was a fun time and some parts of our youth the grandkids will never understand! A big part of our memories is how we communicated and the most prominent way we communicated was using the landline on the kitchen wall. Almost everyone had the corded phone attached to the kitchen wall, which meant no one’s conversations were private! Every conversation we had on the phone took place in the kitchen, and every young man that wanted to contact a young girl had to speak to the parents first!

Since communication, like everything else, has evolved and the landline in the kitchen has become almost extinct, telecommunication companies in Australia are calling for a change of legislation to remove the current cap on local calls.

Local calls have been capped at 22 cents for a number of years now, meaning that most Australians can call any local Australian landline for next to nothing. However, telcos have called on the government saying that this cap should be removed – making landline calls more expensive.

A report last year by the industry regulator, ACMA, warned that “older Australians continue to rely on their fixed-line telephone services to a greater extent than other groups”.

A survey showed that more than half of over 65s still relied on their home phone for local calls, compared to 10% of the rest of the population and more than 9 million people in Australia still have landline telephone services.

Thankfully, the federal government has rejected the paper as Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke on radio station 3AW earlier today saying, “There will be no change to that regulation at all,”

“The requirement to offer untimed local calls will continue.

“I have seen a draft of it, it is not something we will proceed with”, he said.

To see landlines disappear would be quite sad for many of us. Gone are the days when our conversations were shared with those around us, when everyone knew what business we were up to and every potential boyfriend had to speak with our parents first. Despite these distant memories, landlines are still used by many of us because this 22 cent cap makes them much cheaper than mobiles.

So if this were to go ahead in the future, that would mean a significant increase to most of our phone bills.

But let’s share our memories and talk about the days of the landline tonight…

Do you still use your landline phone? Is it still attached to your kitchen wall? What are your memories of growing up with the kitchen phone? Share your thoughts in the comments below…