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Fears of mobile phones underground

People talk to each other. No problem. People talk to each other on the phone. Outrageous! It ought to be banned! - a letter from a worried reader

Dear Guy,

I read your opinion in October's PC Magazine with some interest. So it wouldn't take much to enable a mobile internet service on the London Underground.

But surely that would also lead to the enabling of voice calls. I think the person who was responsible for the implementation of that particular horror would rapidly become the most unpopular person in Britain.

I am an infrequent traveller to London, but when I was there recently, it was refreshing to find some part of the capital that wasn't bombarded with The Flight Of The Valkyries and inaccurate versions of the Simpsons Theme, 'S' 'M' 'S' beeped out in Morse Code every 15 seconds, and worse, frequent cries of 'Yeah, I'm on the tube' and 'I'll be in the office in 10 minutes'.

I would say there's a stronger case for designing new trains that actively block signals once they get above the surface.

Yes, yours is a common reaction. Unfortunately, we all like convenient packaging, and hate litter; we all like cheap transport, and hate pollution; we all like mobile convenience, but hate other people's conversations.

I suspect we'll get used to it. It struck me quite forcibly how irrational these irritations are when I watched someone threatening physical violence on the Underground. What for ? Because someone sitting three seats away was listening to a personal stereo.

Now, the noise level on the underground is high- almost to the level of being dangerous to hearing. A personal stereo plugged into someone else's ears is only barely audible. It should be just another minor bit of background noise - and yet it drove this person to red-faced rage. Why?

Simply, I'd say, because "we aren't used to it."

When the first jet planes flew over London, it brought people out onto the streets in wonder. Then it became a nuisance. Nowadays, unless you are at an open-air concert directly under the flight path quite near the airport, you simply don't notice it, any more than you are aware of the drone of London traffic noise.

To be honest, I doubt that people will use their phones much for conversation on the London Underground; they won't be able to hear much of what other people are saying! And yes, at first, it would cause irritation and annoyance.

But go to Hong Kong, or Singapore, or any other modern, well-equipped metropolis - and watch how people make and receive calls on their underground railway systems. Nobody blinks, nobody cares. It's just what people do, and not a cause for comment or excitement or irritation.

I once met someone (it was on the streets of San Francisco) who couldn't bear to have anybody share his pavement. Most of us won't be that paranoid, once we get used to it.

And of course, the need to send and receive text messages and email underground is great, even if you don't want to suffer the noise of people chatting to invisible colleagues.

By the way, I'm sorry but as you may have heard, PC Magazine UK is closing down, becoming incorporated into PCW magazine as from the November issue. I hope I'll be transferred across to PCW shortly; I hope you find the column interesting in its new location!

Cheers,

Guy