It (the article) can be believable or Duncan had an 'educated guess', the MOD has a once a week courier service to its military around the world, including war zones. Other than, the MOD has vastly improved in telecommunications between military personnel and their families. They have a highly secure e-mail service through their own lines, rather than any of what we citizens of the world use, i.e. hotmail, gmail, skype, etc., plus they can, if they wish, use the ones we use, but its not so secure.