Tell us what’s on your mind
Why we switched to digital phone lines
I’m delighted that BT is pushing ahead with the Digital Voice rollout, and hope it doesn’t get deterred by those who are scared of modernisation (see Issue 668, page 8). The objection I’ve read most often is how people won’t be able to make phone calls during power cuts, but everyone seems to forget that the current copper network can also stop working.
As a case in point, my old business was once without a phone line for a week after a digger helpfully cut through the cable. I remember my boss saying afterwards that he was going to switch to a digital line as a precaution. He made that move seven years ago, so he’s well prepared for the 2025 deadline.
In another incident about 20 years ago, we lost our home landline for a few days when our local exchange was flooded. At that very point I decided to buy my first mobile phone to avoid being cut off in future. It’s interesting how disasters can trigger a permanent change in behaviour.
Frank Ridley
Facebook is useful for local news
I agree with Claire Henderson that using Facebook to follow national and international news is a waste of time (Letters, Issue 668), but she shouldn’t dismiss its importance in keeping residents aware of local issues. I belong to lots of community groups on Facebook, and among the naff jokes and nostalgic recollections are many nuggets of information that people find useful.
Scrolling through the pages for the past week, I can see warnings about door-to-door scammers, updates on the installation of fibre broadband, and timetables of roadworks. That kind of local information is more useful to many people than reading about the bigger international stories.
Helen Grayson
Don’t forget the limitations of MiniDiscs
In Issue 668, MJ Pink laments the passing of the MiniDisc without mentioning the ridiculous limitations of NetMD, a digital rights protection that makes my still-functional player useless. Perhaps they have a later version that did away with it?
I bought one as a stable music player/archive, not realising that copying music tracks from PC to MiniDisc locks them in to that specific setup. Change your PC and – unbelievably – the player won’t let you transfer back to a different PC!
Sony seemed unaware that we change PCs to keep up with the demands of evolving software. The result is that my mint-condition MiniDisc player and a pile of discs lie languishing in the junk cupboard.
