As hundreds of public phones face the axe, CHRIS TITLEY investigates how mobile technology is changing our lives.

ASK not for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for phone boxes. Almost 300 in North Yorkshire are earmarked for removal, including 33 in York. This has upset many who argue pay phones are an essential local facility and a lifeline in times of emergency.

But the not-so-silent majority who march through our streets shouting into their mobile phones, or are furiously thumbing text messages to one another, may be less concerned. Cellular technology is rendering coin operated call boxes redundant.

Today the BT kiosks are favoured mainly by vandals. When they are not spraying graffiti or smashing the Perspex, they are blowing them up with fireworks.

What a sad fate for boxes which have been part of the street furniture for more than 90 years.

York's first telephones were installed in 1878, linking the Balmford Coal Dye Works in North Street to its Coney Street offices. The wire was suspended across the river 60ft above the summer water level, a visual intrusion to rank with any mobile phone transmission mast.

In 1886 the National Telephone Company opened the city's first exchange in Parliament Street, with surgeon, world traveller and president of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society Dr Tempest Anderson becoming subscriber number one.

The NTC and the Post Office then battled it out for York's telephone custom, with the latter taking over the former in 1912.

Not long afterwards the Post Office introduced the first public telephone kiosks - made of wood, possibly because of a shortage of metal during the war.

But just as the petrol engine overtook the trams and the telephone surpassed the telegraph, it now seems the mobile is set to conquer the landline.

Dr Paul Rosen, an expert in new consumer technologies at York University, expresses no shock at the demise of so many phone boxes.

"I am not surprised, but I would be very disappointed if every phone box in a cluster of phone boxes was removed because I think that's socially dangerous."

Pay phones are still vital for non-mobile users, and in case of emergencies, he said. They must remain "in areas of low incomes and in remote areas".

The end of the phone box would also be a cultural loss, too. "It's a great symbol of maybe an out-of-date idea of what Britain's about."

That world-famous British landmark, the red telephone box, could disappear from our shores altogether, "although no doubt they would be still available in some American town somewhere".

The explosion of mobile phones has been astonishing. Only a few years ago they were the prerogative of City bankers and gadget freaks. Today, there are 47.5 million handsets in Britain, more than 16.5 million of which can connect to the Internet.

"Where you phone has changed," said Dr Rosen, research fellow in the university's science and technology studies unit. "Conversations used to take place in a private place because the phone was tied to a wall somewhere. Now there are no boundaries."

Today many mobile users enjoy having a phone conversation in public. And they have leapt on a by-product of the communications revolution - text messaging.

"It's changed the way people communicate. When young people use texting there are all sorts of social rules about how you read texts.

"Most teenagers and people in their early 20s believe that if you text somebody they are obliged to respond. And if you don't, there are certain social sanctions involved."

As a 40-year-old who carefully guards his own mobile phone number and texts only for work, Dr Rosen admits this etiquette is beyond him.

The technology has certainly created a divide. While children and young people respond at the press of a button to regular TV and radio show requests for text messages, those over a certain age are often left in the slow lane.

Dr Rosen believes that age gap could soon shrink. Just as grey surfers are taking over the Internet to keep in touch with the family, the same urge to communicate with children and grandchildren could see older people joining the text revolution.

As with any new technology, mobile phones are a double-edged sword. Promising liberty, the handsets actually track your every movement via satellite. "That has all sorts of civil liberties implications," said Dr Rosen.

Offering children security, go-anywhere phones also ensure they are never truly free from parental surveillance.

But mobiles are only going to become more important. Already the handsets double up as cameras, diaries and even musical instruments.

Soon, the experts believe, we could be paying for our vending machine coffee with a zap from our phone. That is, until the next new technology comes along.

Updated: 08:59 Thursday, September 02, 2004