Signs of the time: UNL dorms cutting the wires

If the hair styles or cars don't tip you off, you can tell how old a television show or movie is by the way the actors communicate.

If they need to find a telephone to get in touch with someone, you know the show is more than a couple of years old. Watching those flicks now, we are amused at their lack of cell phones, or we chuckle at the size of their wireless home telephones.

We've been in hospitals where the nurses all communicate via wireless phones, but a hard-wired communication systems and switchboards have been central part of any large facility since Alexander Graham Bell's invention took over 130 years ago.

Not that long ago, a stay in an out-of-town hospital required a phone card to keep the long-distance relatives informed -- or at least friends and relatives willing to accept the charges.

Now, all it takes to stay in touch is a cell phone call, text mail, or mass e-mail to those interested in the progress of the patient. And, despite the expense of wireless communications, the cost of keeping in touch is much reduced by the widespread availability of the Internet.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has decided to keep up with the times, tearing out all the landline telephones from the dorms. They will use the money saved from ending a service students hardly used to install something students are clamoring for -- wireless Internet.

NET Radio is broadcasting a story about the switch -- one more and more of us are making -- at 6:33 and 8:33 CDT Friday. An audio link to the story will be on NET Radio's Web site (netNebraska.org/radio); click on Nebraska News.

We can vouch for the importance of wireless Internet; photographer Grant Strunk depends on a laptop and WiFi to send us sharp digital photos from out-of-town sporting events in time for deadline.

Truly, telecommunications has changed the world forever. Thankfully, making it easy to keep it touch with friends and family is one of the benefits.