Loopy

EVERYBODY seems to love the “local loop” nowadays. That is what the firms now battling for control of it call the wires that connect telecommunications networks with homes and businesses. It was not always thus, for the local loop has traditionally been the low-margin bit of the business. But now, thanks chiefly to the Internet, consumers everywhere are clamouring for ever-faster ways to download ever-larger quantities of data, and are willing to fork out tidy sums for the privilege.