Even the once spartan sport of running is becoming more hi-tech these days -- and I'm not talking about the shoes.

I'm in Boston and today I'll be running the marathon which will feature what the media here are calling "the highest-tech system ever developed'' to catch cheaters. The system uses computer chips embedded into small plastic devices that runners will tie to their shoelaces. The chip will have a serial number matched to the runner's race number.

While the chips have been used in previous Boston marathons, this year the system will check runners every five kilometres along the 26.2-mile course and will allow those at home to track their family and friends on the Internet while they are running.

At the five-kilometre point, runners will cross over a plastic mat fitted with an antenna. This emits a radio signal, creating a waist-high radio field runners pass through. The signal activates the computer chips to send a reply which is relayed to a central computer that matches chip numbers with bib numbers.

If a runner has not recorded going through each station to the end questions will be asked.

At last year's event 16 runners were disqualified from the race for alleged cheating -- about average for international marathons. Some took the subway while others had cars that ferried them from point to point.

Race officials also use surveillance cameras and human spotters to back up the computers.

The great thing about this system is, not only will it catch cheaters, but it also enables Web watchers to get progress reports of individual runners every half hour as they pass through the check nine points.

Check out bostonmarathon.com and click on the Database link during the race, which starts at 1 p.m. Bermuda time.

One of the best advantages of the Internet became apparent to me when I visited Internet site "boston.com''. As well as being able to book restaurants and other places I wanted to visit in advance of my Bermuda departure. I was also able to get directions from where I was staying to where I wanted to go by clicking on the Yellow Pages link. Interactive maps showing the route were also available.

Other destinations are including such interactive services as part of their way of providing a service to residents and visitors alike. For the providers it's a way of gaining additional advertising revenue.

I advocated the development of just such a site when at the Bermuda Sun.

Perhaps its newly started series of restaurant reviews -- which is sorely needed -- will be the eventual database for building the site. Lets hope their reviewer will have the guts to say when a restaurant provides shoddy service or food if ever he has such an experience.

The April 4 edition of The Economist (magazine) focused on the telecommunications industry and has some comments which will give those watching the Bermuda scene some insights into how competition is unfolding.

"Can the old giants fight back'' asks the magazine on its cover, which promises to be a guide on surviving the telecom jungle. The lead editorial reveals that what's been happening in Bermuda between Cable and Wireless and the Bermuda Telephone Company and newcomers TeleBermuda International and Quantam Communications has been going on elsewhere.

But the massive savings in international telecommunication costs are still not being seen in Bermuda. TeleBermuda has lowered costs by 15 percent and Cable and Wireless is keen to go lower than that to keep hold of its customers. In the UK, rates to the US have fallen by 70 percent in the past two years since British Telecom lost its monopoly.

"Both at home and abroad, BT, like other incumbents, faces an unprecedented assault on its existing revenues from upstarts with new technologies based on Internet protocol networks, fat broad band fibre optic pipes rather than skinny copper wire and packet switching rather than chunky circuits,'' the magazine says.

"There will no longer be distinct data and voice markets, just one for combined data/voice /video. At home it will see increasingly large chunks of the telecom business picked off by new rivals with costs that are a quarter or a fifth of their own.'' The editorial also concludes that regulators are better off introducing competition in the sector immediately rather than phasing it in over a number of years to allow incumbents the chance to adjust.

The lesson from the UK is: "For regulators it is that shock treatment is best. Get out as soon as telecoms can be treated like a normal competitive market - the technology will make it happen sooner than you dared hope. For incumbent firms the lesson is change more quickly and more completely...'' The nightmare is happening for C&W, judging by all the screaming the company is doing. The big question is whether the company will be able to extract its pound of flesh in the form of cash compensation it is claiming from Government.

The screaming has died down somewhat now that both parties have agreed to talk. The question for the public -- since its our money we're talking about -- is did the Government make a mistake and move too fast to introduce competition, thereby breaking its own legislation, or is C&W being a jerk and really wants to extract more out of Bermuda in addition to the millions of dollars in profits it already has? I go for the second option.

The company's tendency to claim it has given Bermuda the finest telecommunications link must be tempered by the fact that they have also got something back from the Island in the form of profits. Now its time to move on.