Remember the days of free-to-air TV, listening to free radio programming and only communicating via landline?

Yeah, me neither. Over the last 20 years, families have been witnessing dramatic increases in their monthly communications budget. Take the Martin family for example: $900 a month (US $780) now covers their four mobile phones, Wi-Fi enabled laptop computers, pay television programming and a landline.

As wired families become increasingly commonplace, the rising costs are anything but. In Australia, the Martin family uses their devices to operate their at-home PR business and maintaining a productive family life; this has become an additional burden to their monthly budget.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that in 2005-06, household per capita spending on communications services was $777, a rise of 341per cent on the $176 spent in 1985-86 – the area of household consumption with the largest increase in spending over that period.

Martin Cooper, inventor of the cellphone, doesn’t hesitate to point any fingers. “… it costs more than a land line and wireless is not as reliable… It is a major challenge for industry to get costs lowered and increase reliability of cellular. We subscribers have been asked to accept lower levels of quality and high costs and this is not right.”

If families like the Martin’s become the new standard, we could see yearly communications bills averaging near US$10,000. That’s one big line item.

As Telstra faces the break-up of its business, households such as the Martins are eagerly waiting to see what impact, if any, the move will have on the prices they pay.

Mr Martin said it appeared the carve-up of Telstra would lead to a “level playing field” for telecommunications companies, sparking more competitive prices.

The benefits that come from a healthy investment in communications can be great; increase your productivity and encourage more communication between family and friends with increasing ease. Technology is becoming a standardization of consolidating devices and simplifying everyday tasks, but it would seem carriers and providers are the only walled-garden’s left to overcome.

“Technology,” Martin Cooper believes, “is only technology if it does something useful for society. It’s important to create science and develop products, but sooner or later you will be involved in the creation of technology. Remember then, you have to make someone’s life better.”

As technology dramatically evolves on what now seems a weekly basis, it’ll be interesting to see how major carriers and service providers negotiate their way into continued relevance as the pursuit for easy to use and accessible technology continues.