Sir, - I read with interest your the article on digital television by Michael Foley entitled "Switching on to a world of choice" (The Irish Times, July 23rd).It was ironic that I, like many other Malahide viewers, had been unable to watch the 9 p.m. RTE news on the previous day which heralded the good news, because all cable channels had been off air for most of the evening. Even when on air, the quality of reception is usually appalling.Will the advent of digital television allow one to pick up RTE and other channels by satellite dish, thereby dispensing with the extremely poor and costly service currently provided by cable? If not, the Government should eliminate the monopoly which allows cable operators to get away with such unsatisfactory customer service. Competition might force the cable operators to improve their present quality of service before they channel their efforts into Internet transmission. - Yours, etc., Peter O'Leary,Ard Na Mara, Malahide,Co Dublin.