Ring, ring, jingle, jingle.

I see from the newspaper that as from this coming weekend, Virgin Airlines are to allow passengers to use their mobile phones on board, once airborne. Where Virgin goes, others will follow.

Noooooo! On a plane is one of the few places you can get away from the incessant ring and irritating tunes of the ubiquitous mobile these days, one of the few places where you can be guaranteed a relative degree of peace and quiet.

The news has had a mixed reception. Those that are overwhelmingly positive seem to be what in the eighties would have been called yuppies, and seem to be predominantly media types who are welded to their mobiles just in case someone important wants to get hold of them because, as we all know, they are indispensible. The less overjoyed are on the whole older, wiser and family types for whom going on a plane means a welcome break from the tedium and constant contactability of life today.

Personally, I can't wait to get away from the 'phone, the telly and the newspapers. I find the media unrelentingly depressing these days, full of complaining and bad news. And the telephone is the most intrusive instrument ever devised by man and for all its benefits, has some significant downsides.

I don't understand those who feel they must answer their phone at all costs and that the world will end if they don't. If someone walked in while you were having a conversation with a third party or having your dinner with friends and interrupted you and demanded that you respond to them immediately, you would think them terribly rude. But you will still answer a ringing phone in such a situation; why? What's the difference? If you are out of contact for a few hours because you are travelling there is very little that is so urgent it cannot wait; as recently as 20 years ago it would have had to, since it is within that relatively short length of time that mobiles have become prevalent.

So far as I can see, allowing people to use their phones on board a plane is totally unnecessary and in terms of customer satisfaction a backward step. It will disrupt other passengers that wish to be quiet or to sleep, will remove the pleasure of travelling and will increase yet again the amount of time that the world can intrude and further pressurise us. Unless they are thinking of segregating the plane and having a 'quiet zone' and possibly only allowing outgoing calls and not incoming, it will make me think twice about flying with Virgin again. Which would be a shame, because on the one time I have done so, it was a very pleasant experience.