Chinese firms are helping to lay fibre-optic cables linking Cuba, Jamaica and Venezuela, as well as Guyana and Brazil.

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Later that year, a Wall Street contact arranged a meeting with Philip Anschutz, a reclusive tycoon who had sold Southern Pacific Railroad to Union Pacific and, in a stroke of genius, kept the right to lay fibre-optic cable along the tracks of both railways.

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For that is the number that will be important if we decide to lay more fibre.

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Eric Bender, who is about to submit plans for the server farm, will not have to lay much fibre-optic cable.

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Meanwhile in Cumbria, the villagers of Alston are banding together to lay their very own fibre network.

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Engineers will ultimately lay around 17, 500km of optical fibre cable and install around 3, 000 new fibre broadband cabinets in streets across Wales to improve broadband speeds and benefit homes and businesses.

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Another possibility, much discussed within the Treasury, would be a government-sponsored effort to encourage the private sector to lay state-of-the art fibre-optic cable in one or more of Britain's major cities.

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