Mr Howell said the service was now looking at how to improve its control rooms "to provide the best technology, maintain the quality of service and deliver this at an affordable price".
As increasing numbers of consumers become used to the quality of service offered by the best web retailers and service providers, their willingness to accept slum standards in the public sector is coming under strain.
Over 25 years my dad and uncle, Louis and Tom Borders, expanded their vision of providing high qualityservice, attention to the customer and the best technology to book selling.
The two areas in which the most hand waving has been done are the ability to provide a quality telephone product over the best-effort Internet and the possibility that providing telephone service over IP might be economically feasible.