If wireless phones are the wave of the future, they have a long way to go before the future is reached.

We have phones that take pictures, send and receive text messages, keep calendars and store all kinds of information, and that is all very interesting and maybe even useful to some people. But what we need now are wireless phones over which people can talk in order to communicate by voice.

More often than not - even when the company keeps asking, "Can you hear me now?" - talking to someone on a wireless telephone makes him sound like Neil Armstrong reporting from the moon that he was taking "a 'all 'ep for 'an, but a giant 'eap for 'ankind."

Having a wireless phone means that people use it on the go, as intended. But if they waited until they got to a regular phone, what they said might actually be understood at the other end.

As it is, somebody calls from somewhere in the American transportation system and leaves a number to call back. But it cannot be understood, and thus it can't be called back - yet another cause for someone being miffed at someone else even when he is not at fault.

Cell phones must have an important use. Otherwise, why would every 10th driver have one at his or her ear? But imagine all the misunderstandings and missed signals the crackling and partial transmissions must cause. (hh)