"Calling the future.  Hello, calling the future."

If you're going to ring up the 21st century, then the old candlestick "Hello, operator, would you give me Pudsey 427" isn't going to do the job.  You need a state of the art phone with all the bells and whistles-- preferably one in a breathtaking Scandinavian design with the rotary dial stuck in a really inconvenient spot under the base.

Future Past is rich with telephonic predictions.  Even in the days of insane long distance charges, unhelpful operators,  and connections that sounded like you were shouting from the bottom of a well, people looked forward to a bright tomorrow of radio phones, speakerphones, picturephones, pocket phones and even newsophones.  Pick up the receiver and it's Century 21 Calling.  Even President Hoover got into the act in 1927 when, as you can see below, he tried out one of the earliest prototype videophones.

Yes, predictions of the progress of many and varied.

Pity they never quite got around to warning us about the pillock who insists on text messaging while doing 80 miles per hour on the motorway in heavy traffic.

Would have helped.

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