When the history of the twenty-first century comes to be written, one of the most puzzling questions asked will be why, well into the information age, millions of people still paid to dial a number on their phone to find out the time. Almost 80 years after its formation, the UK speaking clock, the world's original telephone time service, remains an essential part of British life. This is despite the near ubiquity of time displays - not least on the mobile phones that people discard to call 123 from a fixed line. For some people, at some times, accuracy matters. Peaks in the use of the speaking clock come, for instance, on New Year's Eve, or when the clocks are put forward and back by an hour to mark, respectively, the start and end of British Summer Time.
展开▼
