The Scottish government said SHE was the only company with a licence to lay the cable.

BBC: Uncertainty over Western Isles cable 'disappointing'

Its soul, he reminded Mr Frazier, did not come through a cable in the wall, but lay within.

ECONOMIST: Martin Tytell

Rather than having to dig up the streets to lay cable or fiber, WinStar plugs in an antenna on a customer's rooftop and bingo, you have a dial tone.

FORBES: The up and comers

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.

ECONOMIST: Qwandary

It does a thriving business in directional-drilling equipment used, among other things, to lay fiber-optic cable.

FORBES: Magazine Article

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.

BBC: UK growth - anything to be done?