TWENTY years ago few of us had a mobile phone. That's not such a long time, yet earlier this year it was reported that there are now more mobiles than people in Britain.

And if taking and making calls is about to become acceptable in the traditionally quiet retreats of Dorset's libraries, are we about to lose one of the last sanctuaries from the mobile phone?

There are few places we can be without listening to one-sided phone calls today.

Trains have to be one of the worst places.

"You are breaking up," always followed by an irritatingly sharp rise in the volume of the caller's voice as if shouting will get over a lack of signal.

But you can be privy to half an argument or a reliving of some stranger's Saturday night antics while you are on the beach, in a supermarket or during what you may have hoped would be an intimate evening at a restaurant.

And places from which phones have previously been banned could soon be added to the list.

Just one complaint was made during the six-month trial allowing their use in the county's libraries.

And following claims that confronting people using phones causes more disruption than the phones themselves, the library bylaw could now be changed.

The proposal comes just months after Ericsson launched a system to provide in-flight mobile phone services ahead of a widely anticipated end to the ban on calls during commercial flights.

It has been predicted that more than a billion mobiles will be sold annually around the world by 2009.

At least 60 million are currently in use in the UK.

Eight out of 10 adults have one; those who continue to resist being outweighed by those who own two or sometimes more handsets.

Scare stories over the long-term health impacts of holding the phone to your ear for long periods, or living by a phone mast, may rumble on, as may reports that text messaging erodes literary skills.

A report published in April revealed that the average age for a child to have their first mobile is just eight.

They undoubtedly bring huge benefits.

Gone is the worry that if you break down at night you have little choice but to wander the streets in the dark searching for a phone box.

The fact that they have become so much a part of life for so many may make us wonder how we ever got by without them.

But emergencies aside, could we wait until we leave the library or get off a plane to make a call or receive a text?

I think so.

First published: October 12