Leader: New rules for mobile phone use

Plans by London Underground to extend mobile phone coverage to underground Tube stations have been met with as many groans from the Capital's commuters as cheers.

Consultations with suppliers will begin shortly and the aim is to trial the technology at one underground station in 2006 - with plans to extend it across all tube stations by 2008.

It is perhaps not hard to understand why this might lead to the odd groan. After years of being squeezed into stuffy carriages to enjoy the questionable personal hygiene of their fellow travellers, soon commuters will also be forced to hear them calling home from the platform to tell their significant other to put the dinner on.

"What is wrong some peace from the infernal stupid ring tones?" was the comment from one silicon.com reader. And many may be nodding in agreement.

And don't think you are going to get any peace in the sky; within a few years planes will be mobile friendly as well.

There is the inevitable backlash underway; products that jam mobile phone signals are becoming increasingly popular in theatres and cinemas abroad, although currently banned in the UK.

The problem is, of course, not the technology - it is the inappropriate use of it that winds everyone up. Few would disagree that making it easier to stay in touch is a good thing - but even fewer would want a shrill ring-tone ruining their night at the movies.

Technology is running ahead of society a little here - we haven't developed the do's and don'ts yet, although there are some tentative steps towards it on the way in the form of quiet carriages on some trains, an idea that could be extended further.

In the same way most companies have put an email policy in place which sets out what you can and can't do, perhaps we need one for mobile phones too.

The last thing we need is a backlash against any technology just because a few users don't use it responsibly.