What about the unemployed, such as myself, who would like to enter networking and cable installation within the IT profession? (Government turns to prisoners to tackle IT skills shortages, www.computing.co.uk/ 2218728).

What about those who have never done anything illegal or been to court or prison? How do people such as myself get this golden opportunity? Break the law and go to prison, I suppose.

Tam, submitted on the web

After years of under-investment, under-training, offshoring and devaluing of the second biggest industry in the UK, let's give jobs that require a high degree of trust to the proven untrustworthy (Government turns to prisoners to tackle IT skills shortages, www.computing.co.uk/2218728).

What's wrong with skilling up the unemployed who desperately want to get into IT? Although I suppose being able to hotwire cars would make you quite good at cabling.

This is another example of how this government has no idea about the IT industry. Give me strength.

John Watson

The reason diligent school IT staff must think about issues such as security and compatibility is because they are both responsible and accountable for the network (Vice-like grip, letters.computing.co.uk).

If we simply act like robots and do as we are told, do you imagine the staff who asked us to carry out the task will take responsibility for its failure? Of course not. They will point the finger of blame in our direction.

Many schools have very good IT staff because they have large and complex networks. With the abuse they receive from people who know nothing, they should expect better from those who profess to know it all.

Tony Forder

No doubt Ofcom's latest plan will go the same way as the previous spectrum auctions and increase the bids to levels where operators are pushed to make significant charges to recoup their investments, thus inhibiting the use of WiMax services (Ofcom set for biggest ever spectrum auction, www.computing.co.uk/2213595).

In other parts of the world where the regulators are keen to promote use of services rather than raise money, licences have been awarded to the lowest bidders, therefore enabling low-cost services to be deployed.

Richard, submitted on the web

I think you will find it is employers rather than employees who want this (Workers call for IT-enabled travel).

Who wants to sit on a train and not have time to watch the world go by? Who wants to experience flying and not look down?

There is less time that we can call our own these days and the last thing I need is another small piece of my day given over to work.

Travel is often done in  my own time and it is a neat way for the employer  to arrange for even more work to be done for the same amount of money.

Dave, submitted on the web

The writer of the article "iPlayer piling the pressure on worried ISPs" suggests that ISPs might protest
because "they have sold unlimited connections to people on the understanding that they will not use them much (an arrangement called fair use), and the BBC has broken that agreement."

Sorry? The BBC has broken that agreement?

The unrealistically-priced ISP offerings only made business sense because the average user would not know how to access the more technical bandwidth-draining services such as online  gaming and movie downloads - pirate or otherwise.

Now a well-known brand has entered the market and made it easy for the ordinary, non-technical, user
to access the sort of material the internet evangelists (including these bottom-end ISPs) have long promised - material that could make the internet as pervasive  as the TV.

These cheap ISPs have gone "lunatic" because their flawed business models have been shown up to be entirely unsustainable in the world that they actually promised.

Adrian S, submitted on the web

As a network manager in a school environment I find the biggest problem I come across is the support staff put "in my way" as part of BSF (Vice-like grip, letters.computing.co.uk).

For example, I had a hardware failure on the internet connection which I diagnosed, but I have to report to the company put in place under the BSF agreement. Twenty minutes later I get a phone call from a field engineer who goes through some diagnostics which I had already tried, which is then referred to the corporate IT department of our council.

Twenty minutes after the call from the engineer I get a call from the council's IT  department, which diagnoses a failure on the fibre converter which needs to be swapped out. The response I get is I have to contact the support company who deals with schools, who will then  contact the same person I have just spoken to, to arrange replacement parts to be sent out to them, then they will come out and change the failed item.

In the old system in the days before BSF, all I had to do was make one phone call and diagnose the issue.
Once this was done an agreement was made on when and where the hardware item was replaced. Nine times out of 10, I met the engineer halfway between his base and mine and exchanged the parts.
Most fixes were sorted within the hour. This incident was still going 12 hours after the fault was reported. By saying the likes of   in-house support staff stand in the way of education is a joke.

We know more of what is going on and work harder than most to deliver a system which meets the needs of pupils and staff and is as cutting edge as is possible to the tight budgets we are given.

Simon Dart

Next-generation access is a key issue in avoiding the bandwidth crunch, but with BT's 21st century network (21CN) years from completion, it is not just the ISPs that ought to be concerned (iPlayer piling on the pressure on worried ISPs).

UK businesses that still run their communications through BT-based DSL or through ISPs that use the current BT network will inevitably start to feel the strain of outmoded copper wiring.

Even when 21CN is eventually unveiled, it must provide fibre to both the core and access networks
before it can offer a genuine next-generation network. Upgrading BT's access network will require significantly more investment, and the question of who will pay for it has yet to be understood.

We would welcome an  informed debate on how best to keep UK telecoms moving forward.

Stephen Beynon,
ntl:Telewest Business

David Evans wrote that: "A bunch of lunatics ranting about privacy are trying to prevent ISPs monitoring user connections, profiling them and then intervening by serving advertising. Do they not understand that the ISPs are simply trying to improve the customer experience? The extra revenue would be spent on much-needed infrastructure upgrades." (iPlayer piling on the pressure on worried ISPs).

I sincerely doubt the ISPs are trying to improve the customer experience. As far as I recall, Phorm - the company at the heart of this reference - is working with a couple of ISPs with a product that will use deep packet inspection to intercept and read your personal traffic between you and the web sites you are reaching, which is itself of questionable legality.

The company promises faithfully that it will ignore personal data and just extract keywords which will be used to provide targeted advertising. One has to simply trust this company.

If such a company were involved in, say, adware deployment or perhaps rootkits, one might take a different view. The analogy often quoted asks how you would feel if all your personal mail were opened, scanned, resealed and the data used by the postman to select which  advertising flyers you should receive. Of course, the   postman promises not to  actually read anything.

Do you really think it is  lunacy to be concerned?

John K, submitted on the web

The only bunch of lunatics are the ISPs. They have oversold their services to customers, and the market
is so competitive they fear increasing prices. (iPlayer piling on the pressure on worried ISPs).

So they want to sell their customers' privacy to spyware vendors instead. Using what value proposition? Simply steal valuable content from the content creators - smart plan. Or at least, it would be if you could get away with it.

When ISPs start stealing and abusing content to entice people away to competitors, content providers will start getting annoyed. When that happens, you will see net neutrality has two sides. Not to mention commercial and legal disputes.

Pete, submitted on the web

Do not hold your breath for government action on the future of broadband, Mike McNamara (Broadband of old, letters.computing.co.uk). In November I wrote to Stephen Timms MP suggesting that investment in broadband could help traffic and pollution concerns by promoting teleconferencing rather than driving to meetings.

Unfortunately, this government "does not believe, however, that rollout should be financed through public investment".

While our manufacturing capability ebbs away, surely our only future as a country lies in leading in other areas - apparently IT investment is not one of them.

Duncan Reynolds

So, another report to deliver in the autumn (Government to review broadband). What is going on with broadband in the UK?

It seems that the Broadband Stakeholder Group report released in April 2007 has not had any influence on government thinking about broadband in the UK and now there is another report due in another six months.

When will we see some real action from the government on real investment in the broadband infrastructure of the UK?

Mike McNamara

Am I the only one who has experienced significant delays in receiving an SMS, sometimes up to a few hours?

If users are relying on timely SMS to access their system, it is possible that working time could be lost (SMS to replace token security).

How do those lost man-hours compare against a £40 token?

Andrew R, submitted on the web

It seems ridiculous that people with higher levels of electro-sensitivity should have to be relocated to somewhere with a lower WiFi field (Experts raise health concerns over WiFi).

Surely this is some form of discrimination? Segregating people based on some health-related aspect? Not enough research was done into the health risks before we were bombarded with WiFi. Now a lot of us have convenience at the cost of our health.

G Jones

I am a parent of a child at a well-regarded north London state sixth form. There have been a number of occasions on which teachers have failed to turn up without notifying students at all, who end up hanging about for a bit and then drifting off.

I suggested that students be notified of absent teachers by SMS text message (Education, education, computers, Intellect blog, intellect.computing.co.uk). This suggestion was brushed aside with the comment that I appeared to have a lot of faith in technology. I think real-time feedback to parents and students is a long way away.

North London parent submitted on the web

I totally agree with David Anderson's comments (We risk being left in last place, Letters blog, letters.computing.co.uk) - future broadband investment in the UK must be taken up by the government if we are to keep pace with our competitors.

However, like the rest of the UK infrastructure that badly needs updating, it will probably not appear until too late, or not at all.

Mike McNamara

Current ADSL broadband can offer a maximum speed of 24Mbit/s at its absolute best (Government broadband summit). The only cable provider is Virgin Media, after taking over NTL. Although this will meet most home users' needs, it will not do for medium-sized and large businesses in the years to come.
It is no longer a case of the UK beginning to fall short of the international network community - we already are. A lot of countries are already serving two, three and four times the speeds we are seeing in the UK.

Unfortunately, I think this situation will continue to  escalate, as I imagine by the proposed year 2012 the connection speeds will, again, be greatly increased in other countries. Action is needed before we fall even further behind the rest.

David Anderson

There was a clue to the lack of Galileo's viability when the commercial partners pulled out (Galileo is an EU vanity project say MPs).

If you are using a line such as "we can't trust the US" (Galileo magnifico, Letters blog, letters.computing.co.uk), why stop at Galileo? We had better scrap Trident and build nukes from scratch, start a separate internet, and ground all Boeings.

The billions would be much better spent saving lives and educating children.

Robert Stevens

Jose Manuel Barroso is correct on the need for a single market to ensure the EU remains a significant economic player (Telecom watchdogs to gain more powers).

European telecoms reform of this magnitude is long overdue, particularly if EU-based businesses are to continue to compete in a globalised market. Greater harmonisation and regulatory consistency across Europe is essential, particularly in countries where national regulators have not yet implemented directives in a complete or effective way.

It is about time that the European Commission (EC) and national regulators started paying the same attention to the business telecoms market as they do to the consumer market.

Business communications are very different from residential communications. For example, many business users require multiple cross-border sites to be connected simultaneously, while local access bottlenecks often make it difficult to provide these services in an efficient way. The EC and national regulators must be prepared to regulate to improve competition in this segment.

Regulation does not just mean greater scrutiny; it can help generate competition and choice for consumers.

The EC's move is welcome recognition of the importance of pan-European business communications in driving workplace productivity and underpinning the smooth running of the European economy.

Robin Saphra

While social networking sites undoubtedly leave unwary users open to phishing and identity fraud attacks, UK organisations should not write off such technology as dangerous and frivolous. The technology that underpins Web 2.0 not only has many and varied uses in the consumer world, it also has great potential in business.

With the majority of organisations drowning under the weight of emails and phone calls, it is clear that business is struggling to maximise the opportunities the internet offers. However, if carefully implemented and monitored, the power of Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook, Linkedin and Bebo can provide significant opportunities for business in a sector that is becoming defined as collaboration.

The concept behind social networking provides a huge and unique opportunity for organisations to engage and interact on a local and global basis with customers, suppliers and employees. Such collaboration will impact on all areas of business, but particularly within the supply chain in terms of new procurement, retailing and marketing strategies.

In the right hands, Web 2.0 technology is a means of significant competitive advantage.

Tristan Rogers

Using mobile phones for boarding passes will make the boarding procedure a lot more complicated for passengers and airlines (Have mobile phone will fly, Letters blog, letters.computing.co.uk).

There are unsolved security issues such as identity authentication, validation and verification. It would also require a mobile standard widely accepted by airlines and security authorities.

If the passenger has to provide identification on boarding the flight, it would be easier just to carry that piece of paper along. The risk of losing that will be the same as losing the phone. A fingerprint is not so easily lost.

Since owning a mobile cannot be a requirement for boarding a flight, the airlines have to preserve the paper procedure. What then is the benefit? For the gadget-obsessed, no excuse is needed for making simple things difficult if they are fun to do. That's the real challenge.

The mobile phone could be used for holding check-in information such as ticket data, since the passenger has to provide identification to proceed. Also, here it is more complicated for the passenger. Presently you just need a note - or a good memory - with the reservation code for the electronic ticket.

To add some value to the transfer experience between flight connections at airports it would be worthwhile to consider using the mobile phone as a navigation tool to the next gate or terminal. This would require all arrival gates to have a method of connection to the phone such as Bluetooth or WiFi. This would be a help for not-so-frequent-flyers. Airports always seems to be undergoing constant reconstruction.

Henning Tousted

The only not-so-good relationship between aviation and mobile phones is that mobiles cannot be used in the plane yet (Passport to safety, Letters blog, letters.computing.co.uk). The idea of using your passport as a ticket is a good one, similar to the way passengers can go to a kiosk and use a credit card to check in.

But the mobile phone is not static. Business travellers especially would only need the mobile device to handle the full process, from wherever they are: booking, payment, check in and so on. No more waiting at the counter or at the kiosk when you do not have baggage to check in.

Furthermore, with the same SMS the passenger can receive a ticket in the form of a unique 2-D code, and information about the gate, delays or gate changes.

The mobile handset can be used for a two-sided communication in real time, which can make life easier and more convenient.

Marc, submitted on the web

McDonald's is getting lots of free publicity for its plan to provide free WiFi connections in its outlets (Free is the future for mobile computing, The editor's diary, editor.computing.co.uk), but shouldn't you wait and see if it uses WiFi as a way of pushing advertising at customers?

Worse than that, who wants to sit in a McDonald's "restaurant" using their laptops? Everyone knows McDonald's considers a customer staying more than 20 minutes as overstaying their welcome - hardly the right environment for a bit of mobile surfing.

Name withheld on request

As a web developer, I am hoping BT decides to go through with the plan to put fibre into the home (How will the UK match the world's broadband elite?).

There is a petition on the prime minister's web site regarding this issue - see http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/fibretothehome.

I think all techies should show support for this and pressurise the government into action.

Dan Price

Am I the only one who thinks this is a strange idea (Mobile phone boarding passes are ready to fly), especially as there is not a good relationship between mobile phones and aviation?

I wonder why the travel industry doesn't use passports instead of tickets. When booking they could ask for the number on the barcode of your passport, for which there is already an international standard.

For the other details, regarding terminals, departure time and so on, you can print that yourself, or even receive it via SMS if required.

Joel Mansford

The idea of giving IT users more control is coming from a lot of think tanks right now (IT autonomy will attract talent). Like the saying goes, "You can't please all the people all the time" and I think IT departments are getting sick of trying too.

Consumerisation is driving ever more applications and devices into the corporate arena and IT must double and redouble its efforts, not to keep up with technology but to try to integrate it within a safe, secure working environment.

There is a new principle coming out of Denmark called network consolidation. Basically, shrink the firewall to only cover your server farm and kick all users to a peripheral local area network with a basic firewall and proxy if needed.

Only the pre-secured applications can talk to the services on encrypted application-only tunnels; everything else is blocked. The PC does not know or see the server network so what the user has on their machine is immaterial.

Ron Wilkins

WiFi is an IEEE-based specification Ð 802.11a/b/g/n and so on. 802 is the Ethernet specification and WiFi systems are really Ethernet mapped onto a radio system.

Unfortunately, there are fundamental differences (Municipal WiFi continues to struggle). Where Ethernet
detects collisions, WiFi avoids them.

So on a physical local area network, if multiple devices transmit at once, each device knows about it and stops transmitting.

In WiFi, networks have to be cleverly designed so each device can hear all the others; that way, if a device is transmitting, other devices will hear and not transmit themselves.

Hidden nodes can cause network meltdown, and municipal WiFi systems will always have hidden nodes that can't be seen by all other parts of that WiFi network, as nodes are often mobile, such as laptop users. This makes the networks  expensive and not particularly reliable.

WiMax gets around these problems as the base station is always in control of who gets to talk, so there's only ever a conversation between the base station and one endpoint at a time.

The other issue is that broadband has become ubiquitous, so homes and businesses are already connected to the internet. When municipal WiFi was first rolled out, broadband was costly and not available everywhere.

Steve Kennedy

Municipal WiFi continues to struggle, Computing reports. I work as a consultant designing rooms so I'm often in several different locations during the day. I had planned a web conference with voice conferencing; however, changing client needs meant I could not be in my office for that conference.

No problem though. Thanks to The Cloud and my laptop PC, I was able to participate in the full web conference. At the same time Skype handled the connection to the two-way voice part of the conference. It was all low-cost, easy to use and had a reliable fast connection.

Charles Smith

Fibre is all well and good for the urban environment, (UK needs broadband offensive) but for those of us in rural areas - yet only 15 miles from the hotbed of technological innovation that is Cambridge - it is unlikely that the case for high investment will justify deployment until the copper needs replacing.

Yet most places are served by mobile phones. What is now needed is for the mobile networks to stop trying to force broadband users to use their phone networks to access the internet but to branch out into WiFi, using their extensive aerial networks to bring high speeds universally.

John Loader

I would like to respond to all wireless worriers and radio-sensitive people (Wireless worries, Letters blog,
letters computing.co.uk).

For many years humans have been subjected to a variety of natural and unnatural products, yet we are still here to tell the tale.

Experiments have shown that people differ in sensitivity to their environment. Some suffer hay fever, yet we do not ban plants.

Is the onus on the employer to reduce the workplace to a sterile environment? Does this extend to removing services such as wireless networks to accommodate a minority?

Radio waves are everywhere at different frequencies and strengths. The so-called damage to human cells is no greater than the other risks we take for granted each day.

Sensitivity to the workplace should now be added to an employee risk assessment, maybe even added to the recruitment specification.

Mark Christian

I have suffered with searing headaches for years and can attribute them to wireless technologies ranging from the Wii games machine to wireless routers (Experts raise health concerns over Wi-Fi).

Wireless routers and associated network devices cause me great pain. My employer did some blind tests on me and I can pretty well predict when the radiation is switched on. I have been to the doctor who has referred me to a neurologist. But I am really concerned. What is discouraging is the way this condition is laughed off by so-called professionals. If I can sense wireless signals - what are they doing to our bodies?

David Williams

There is a fundamental flaw in the system whereby councils offer car parking payment by mobile text messages (Mobiles supplant Westminster’s parking meters).

SMS text messaging is a store-and-forward system. In most cases, text messages are transmitted to their recipient almost immediately. However, as anyone who tried to send a text message over the Millennium period will tell you, when the systems are busy, the messages don’t get through.

My wife would like to be entered into the Guinness Book of Records, for the owner of the longest in-transit text message, at a whopping two-and-a-half years ­ sent on 2 February 2005, received on 3 June 2007.

I wonder how a text messaging-based car parking payment would cope with such a delay ­ a large fine,
or a very big wheel clamp perhaps?

David Whale

Phil Morris says we do not see sparrows falling out of the air pre-cooked, despite being exposed to powerful TV signals (Frying tonight?).

Evidence suggests that birds tend to avoid powerful transmitters, so would tend to change course to avoid being cooked. Research is under way into whether the proliferation of mobile phone masts is responsible for the decline in sparrow and bee populations.

The reason why the population is not falling like flies from the effects of the power radiated on each of the four main analogue TV channels is not because of some magical, benign property of TV frequencies, but more to do with the searchlight effect: the signal is radiated in a number of horizontal beams some 300m above ground. When you move far enough away from the site to be in the path of a beam, the signal has diminished to a safe level. In the way that the heat from a flame can be felt from across a room, its capacity to burn drops off dramatically with increasing distance.Electromagnetic energy in a microwave oven is focused in a very small region. In contrast, a TV transmitter seeks to disperse it. For a bird to be cooked by a transmitter signal, it would have to be taken by surprise ­ such as flying upwards into a beam with a field strength having a ‘cooking time’ of a fraction of a second. Even being partially cooked has a sudden detrimental effect on the ability to fly, which is probably fatal at 300m, so the exact cause of death can vary. Piles of dead birds at the foot of transmitter masts are by no means unusual.

Tim Bolt

Harry Leeming stated that ‘the only way one can asses the danger of a new source of radiation is to compare it with an existing one’ (Why WiFi is fine, letters.computing.co.uk).

He then talks about the comparative power outputs of mobile phones, TV transmitters and WiFi. While power outputs can be important when assessing health risk, they are only a small part of the equation.
A 650 watt microwave will cook a baked potato in four minutes but it is not uncommon for a TV transmitter to have a power output exceeding 10,000 watts and we do not see sparrows dropping out of the air pre-cooked.

I am not saying that WiFi is a health risk, only that its potential to cause harm is much higher than the compared frequencies.

Phil Morris

I’m not sure how long Harry Leeming’s arms are, but I have total respect for them, along with his superhuman eyesight and hearing (Why WiFi is fine, letters.computing. co.uk). In my experience, using WiFi-enabled devices  usually requires me to hold a PDA close to me, have a WiFi phone at my ear and a laptop sitting on my lap.  This keeps the WiFi adaptor (transmitter) within an inch of me and not the 50 inches he suggests.

I welcome the continuing reassessment of the safety of already accepted risks. With knowledge comes more knowledge. I expect our grandchildren will look back on us in the same way as we  look back on the Victorians’ attitude to health and safety.

John Hamilton

Without knowing if very low-power digital transmitters are a health risk ­ and who can until a lot more research is done ­ I can’t see us giving up wireless technology (Why WiFi is fine, letters.computing. co.uk).
The arguments against WiFi are weak now, mainly because we don’t know. If smokers won’t give up, I can’t see us giving up any time soon a technology which offers much greater benefits than tobacco. It is hard to give up something you enjoy, whatever the risk.

Keith Barlow

The only way one can access the danger of a new source of radiation is to compare it with existing ones (WiFi concerns still up in the air, Letters, 24 May).

The effective radiated power of a typical WiFi network adaptor is less than a tenth of that given out by a mobile phone, but more importantly its distance from the user’s brain is much greater.

A  mobile phone is typically used one inch from the user’s brain, a WiFi adapter is 50 inches. Radiation weakens in proportion to the square of the distance, so at 50 inches is 2,500 times  weaker than it is at one inch.

Allowing for the lower power, this makes the radiation received from a computer’s WiFi adaptor about 25,000 times  less than that from a mobile phone.

If WiFi is dangerous, then mobile phone users should be dropping dead in their millions, yet they do not seem to be. If we really want to get paranoid about radiation, how about closing down the ITV and BBC transmitters? They radiate millions of times more power than a WiFi adapter.

Harry Leeming

Well, we have had folk who are sensitive to the electromagnetic fields around PC screens, folk who are sensitive to mobile phone masts, those who can sense Tetra masts, others who dread the proximity of Dect cordless phones, and now we have a whole new generation affected by WiFi (Experts raise health concerns over WiFi).

What about high-power TV and broadcast radio transmissions? Then, there is the fully digital DAB and DVB (Freeview) services, not to mention BSkyB, Worldspace and numerous other satellite broadcasters whose powerful signals hardly respect national boundaries.

Most countries have powerful short-wave transmitters that reach the other side of the world to provide overseas services. Add to this countless other commercial and government communication data, navigation and scientific services throughout the radio spectrum, and you can believe that the ‘electrosmog’ contribution from a nearby but tiny WiFi system is miniscule in the extreme. Homework for researchers: find out the acceptable minimum service area field strength for a typical broadcast TV or radio station and compare it with a typical domestic WiFi figure.

Martin Nicholson

I have to agree with the letter stating that WiFi should not just be in city centres as plenty of business is conducted elsewhere, and have to say that I agree with  this view, as I have seen plenty of evidence to support this from personal  experience. For example, on Merseyside you can get a free WiFi Connection at the Sir Thomas Hotel, The World Museum, the Maritime Museum and the Everyman Theatre & Bistro. At the West Lancashire Investment Centre in Skelmersdale, there is also a free WiFi connection  for visitors and the many companies situated within the building. In  Southport, the Floral Hall Complex and the Casa Italia restaurant both offer free WiFi and in Rufford, low-cost access at St Mary's and Fettlers Wharf Marinas. I think it is fantastic that these venues have recognised that by offering a free WiFi connection, it is beneficial to their  organisations and their clients alike.

Amanda Shaw

Remote working is very powerful for both the corporation and the worker (Employers distrust home working). A great testament to success of home working is demonstrated by many of our clients closing the majority of their bricks and mortar sites within two years of trying a pilot. It's not for everyone yet - but for those who are ready, life will never be the same again.

Brian Pritchard

We should all have access to WiFi connections in the whole of the UK not just the city centres (WiFi network offers freedom to city workers). Plenty of business is done outside of city centres in regional areas too.

Name withheld on request

I entirely agree with Tony Wood (Letters, 22 March). The thought of technology being misapplied so that mobile telephoners can rabbit on the London underground is horrific to many of us. Just glad I hardly ever have to use the Tube.

Neil Harvey

You report that Lloyds TSB is to introduce automated telephone alerts to warn customers of suspicious transactions on their current accounts (Lloyds TSB extends card fraud technology).

This may sound strange, but I think it might have been a good idea to alert customers to this service by letter. We receive so many scam phone calls these days it is difficult to distinguish the genuine ones.
One such call I received recently seemed authentic but Lloyds TSB has been unable to help me verify the telephone number that was left.

Keith Holliday

I moved recently and my new neighbours are constantly asking me to pop round and install their new wireless network or fix their PC.

I note none of them is willing to pay for my time. They would not ask their local professional gardener to cut their lawn for free, but nowadays people see IT as a free service.

As head of an IT department I can see this attitude starting to occur in my workplace too. My directors are asking more and more development to be done, but never want to sanction any extra spend. It is time that the IT community stop doing things for free and move away from the general perception that we do it as a hobby and not for money and a career.

Christopher Burgess

Unfortunately the London Underground is now far from a refuge from intrusive technology (Letters, 22, 29 March).

Anyone who has had the misfortune to travel recently on the Piccadilly line cannot have missed the deafening and intensely irritating automated in-train announcements of arrival at each station and imminent arrival at the next.

They are loud enough to serve as platform announcements in their own right and are obviously designed to penetrate iPod headphones. The result is yet more tinny irritation as users turn up the volume to shut them out.

Announcements might help tourists in central London, but the result for most travellers is misery. How many times do I need to be told as I try to get home late at night that I am indeed going to get to Cockfosters and that the stations have not changed their names during the day?

Frank Jeffs

Surely the London Underground is just about the capital’s only refuge from annoying and pervasive mobile technology (Mobile phone services to be tested on Tube, 15 March).
Like Tony Wood (Letters, 22 March), I think encouraging people to use mobiles on the London Underground is unacceptable in the social sense. Although I am a mobile user - for convenience rather than just because I can – I always think twice before I make or take calls.
Does this development not also present other security issues yet to emerge? Of course, mobile technology could have helped greatly with some of the tragic events on the underground in recent years, but this could be achieved using private networks instead.
Gordon Dale

I run the risk of being branded a Luddite, but the Tube has for me always been a sanctuary from mobiles - certainly in central London (Mobile phone services to be tested on Tube, 15 March).
But do we know the true cost of enabling this technology for the general public in the confines of the underground? It occurs to me that all these radio frequency signals are going to be absorbed by flesh and bone - and the reflected signals too.
Will London underground be insuring itself for the future in decades to come when millions of passengers - some no doubt considering themselves high net worth - for claims that manifest themselves in the same way that smoking, asbestosis and silicosis have?
By all means test and implement a system for use by railway staff, emergency services and contractors, which hopefully would have to handle far lower volumes.
Tony Wood by email

It is true that instant messaging is considered mission critical in financial services but a distraction elsewhere (What the experts say about instant messaging, 1 March). 
I am old enough - just - to remember a time when email was in a similar position.  People would say: ‘I don't have time to email. Why don't you just pick up the phone?’
I hear the same today about instant messaging - though less and less all the time. It will break through to the mainstream enterprise – it is a matter of when not if.
Graham Lawlor

You report that the GSM-Railway (GSM-R) communications system has been further delayed (Further testing delays rail system arrival time, 1 March). You also explain that the European safety system that requires GSM-R uses transponders that record a train’s position and automatically apply the brakes when necessary.
It is worth noting that the Great Western Railway had a similar system called Automatic Train Control (ATC). This system continued in use with little alteration until the 1980s. By the way, ATC was introduced almost 100 years ago.
Before some apologist for our current shambles of a railway system claims that things are different now, the train service provided by Great Western Railway was faster, more frequent and more reliable - and just as safe.
Jeremy Sellick