When Michael Trufant was growing up in New Orleans in the late 1960s and early '70s, he used a green rotary dial telephone- the only phone in the house--to chat with friends. His only television viewing options were whatever the rabbitears antenna could snag out of thin air. Changing channels involved leaving the recliner and actually turning a dial on the set.

Today, like many others in Baton Rouge, Trufant totes a BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, he and his wife, Ro, carry cell phones, and their home in Woodstone subdivision has a land-line phone, high-speed Internet connections, cable television and TiVo, the digital video recorder they claim they can't live without.

All of these gadgets of the modern world, they say, are necessities of life, allowing them to "take control of our life by doing what we want when we want." The stack of service bills, however, is Trufant's monthly reminder that managing one's time doesn't come cheap.

Advances in technology have dramatically lowered product costs, by about one-third over the past 20 years, but it's the related subscription services that take a bite out of family budgets.

The phone service Trufant had in the early '70s cost about $19 a month, roughly $70 today when .adjusted for inflation. Watching TV was free, and widespread access to e-mail and the Internet was 20 years away.

Today, the Trufants pay more than $420 a month for services that enable them to watch television, make phone calls, check e-mail and surf the Internet. That's a five-fold increase, in today's dollars, for communications and home entertainment.

"Time is money," says Trufant, "and all of these things allow me to work my time the way I want to work it."

What the Joneses pay

Research at Columbia University indicates that like the Trufants, most households over the past decade have happily made the choice to spend an increasing percentage of their disposable income on operating these gizmos of convenience. And in what can only be viewed as good news by the companies that help link us to the outside world, researchers at Rutgers University say the average consumer is willing to spend even more for customized technology services.

Perhaps, but not everyone is thrilled with the prospect of escalating access fees. Thomas Gaines, an industrial sales representative, says he wasn't prepared for the laundry list of charges associated with digital cable.

"The cost is reasonable during the trial period when they get you hooked," said Gaines. "Now I'm being billed for all these (program) tiers, and the costs keep rising."

One man's rip-off is another's bar gain. Jon Flowers, a transplant from Massachusetts, happily pays Direct TV $150 each year to catch every New England Patriots football game. He pays a similar amount each spring to CoxCommunications to have Boston Red Sox games beamed into his Glenmore Place home. That doesn't include the monthly service charges for both satellite and digital cable services, together more than $100 a month.

For Flowers, it's worth $300 to watch his Beantown heroes. For Trufant, CEO at ConnectUtilities Inc., technology allows him to both work and play smarter.

"In my business life I carry a Black-Berry and a cell phone, and I can go anywhere in the country and be in touch," said Trufant. "At home we use the Internet and TiVo to be entertained when it fits our schedule, not that of some TV network."

The ability for each household to tailor technology to fit individual needs is the attraction, despite the cost, says James E. Katz, a professor of communications at Rutgers University. It helps, he says, that few people actually take the time to calculate the total cost of these services.

"As long as you're getting pelted by a lot of little bills it's only a little irritating," he said. "It's only when you add it all up that you get horrified."

Francis Edwards, a mortgage lender and father of three teen agers, decided his family needed to cut back after realizing it cost more than $250 a month for digital cable, three cable decoder boxes, high-speed Internet service and five cell phones. He dropped digital cable and three movie channel packages, opting instead for expanded basic service and saving some $40 a month.

"It lasted about two months, and then the kids started screaming about not being able to watch 'The Sopranos' or listen to the all-music stations," he laughed. "It's worth the extra money to keep them quiet."

Katz says the Edwards family was nowhere near the limit of $500 a month that the typical consumer is willing to pay for subscription services.

Are all of these services exotic luxuries or lifestyle necessities? That's a personal decision. But consider this: the rotary dial telephone was considered a luxury item--one many believed they could do without--until the 1960s.

"I know this much," says Trufant, "you'll have to pull my TiVo remote out of my cold, dead hand."

each out and touch someone

Michael Trufant's monthly tab for staying connected:

BlackBerry e-mail:     $70
Land-line phone:       $60
His cell phone:       $100
Wife's cell phone:     $60
Cable TV:              $40
High-speed Internet:   $40
AOL access:            $20
MSN access:            $20
TiVo:                  $17

Monthly total:        $427

JR BALL covers banking, personal finance, real estate and the business of sports. Reach him at jrball@businessreport.com.

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