The emergency telephones that dot Melbourne's freeways could soon become a thing of the past if a VicRoads review deems keeping the old roadside phones in service is not worth the expense.

There are 590 emergency telephones on Melbourne's freeway network, but VicRoads says they are rarely used these days because most people have mobile phones.

Freeway emergency phones could go. Credit:Pat Scala

An evaluation of the phones' use and maintenance costs found the phones are used so infrequently these days that each call cost an average $1000. The total cost of maintaining the phones is about $370,000.

Help phones on the Eastern Freeway were each used less than once a year on average last year, VicRoads said.