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But the Web is a scary place for non-technical consumers at the moment. Deadly viruses may come up your telephone line and frazzle your computer. Bestial paedophiles might expose themselves to your children. Hackers might steal your credit card details and suck your bank account dry. Well, these things might happen if you believe what you read in the popular press. The greater likelihood is that you might die of boredom while watching the hourglass on screen or reading some of the appalling drivel which is posted on the Web.
Who does a non-techie trust to go online if he's never heard of CompuServe and U-net before and his friend - who knows a thing or two about computers - always crosses himself and hangs up garlic when anyone mentions Microsoft? "It is a question of trust, and who better to trust than the BBC?" asks Miles, rhetorically, while avoiding the question of whether the beeb will set itself up as an ISP. So will it? Of course it will. And it will make a decent job of it too. If you think Rupert Murdoch's cross-media promotions are blatant, wait till the BBC gets going. "What we roll out in June is just the beginning," says Miles. "Once we have a critical mass of content we'll be shouting very loudly about it indeed."
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