Letter: Free phone calls to the Internet

Sir: Ian Quayle (letter, 21 May) is on the right lines when he revives Arthur C Clarke's proposal to abolish long-distance telephone charges as a way to celebrate the millennium.

However, users of the Internet will know that long-distance charges are already optional, in effect. The real need is for abolition of local call charges, as is already the case in Canada, New Zealand, most of the United States and numerous other places.

A recent international survey has shown that, unsurprisingly, where local calls are free, take-up and use of the Internet is three times greater than where they are not. As the Internet is where the future lies, can we afford to subsidise British Telecom's excessive profits like this any longer?

JIM MANGLES

Diss, Norfolk