Our world is increasingly awash with silly surveys. Scarcely a week passes without some vested interest producing figures claiming to favour its argument or product.

One of the first offerings of the new year came this week in the form of a study showing that Irish people would be happy to pay an additional 63 per cent on top of their existing mobile phone bills for access to the sort of information that third generation mobile phones will bring.

I have yet to meet the person who agrees in advance that they would be prepared to pay a set amount extra for an untested product or technology. No surprise then to discover for whom the survey was carried out - Siemens.

That wouldn't be the giant electronics group which, among other things, produces mobile phones, would it? Apparently so. What really would impress me is a survey from the likes of Siemens saying that people think the mobile phone revolution is overrated. With Eircell selling more mobile phones and connecting more mobile calls over Christmas than ever before, that is unlikely.