Ah yes - the pre-STD days when you would ring 0 for the operator, then ask for a 'trunk call' to somewhere beyond the local exchange. A few minutes later, he/she would call back and put you through...
Only a few years ago, UK inland calls were distance based - and it was cheaper to ring 'abroad' after 2000 during the week.
Remember the joy of the 'pips'..
?
Or 'party lines' which you had to share with a neighbour?
I see from my records that, in 1991 my first cellphone (in the car) cost me £27 per month subscription and that peak time calls cost 25p per minute outside London or 33p per minute inside....
Even in 1985, virtually no-one had a home 'answering machine' - and home fax machines were unheard of!
People who've never had to struggle with shoving coins into a GPO public callbox and who can now call world-wide from a 3G phone for peanuts should be very grateful!
Skype is another excellent innovatiion, but it still has some limitations. It now seems to be fully restored; one hopes that most Skype engineering work will concentrate on reliability and quality issues rather than geeky gimmicks.