In the U.S., Google has deployed its own fiber-optic cables to wire up homes in cities in Kansas with high-speed Internet and video, and it has plans to do the same in cities in Missouri, Texas and Utah and elsewhere.

WSJ: Google to Fund, Develop Wireless Networks in Emerging Markets

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest particle accelerator, uses a staggering 1, 200 tonnes of superconducting wire, similar to the sort used in MRI, in order to speed protons up to within a whisker of the speed of light and to collide them inside vast detectors, themselves stuffed with several hundred tonnes of superconducting materials.

ECONOMIST: Inside story

Yet there is clearly a huge opportunity, given the gap between the quality of Internet access most Americans enjoy at work (through high-speed direct connections) and at home (through a copper telephone wire).

ECONOMIST: Cable television

With networks of wire already running into homes all over the country, cable companies can now deliver high-speed internet access.

FORBES: Turning On Cable Stocks

Why should competitors build innovative, ultra high-speed fiber networks that would provide real competition when the government is giving them a break on copper wire?

FORBES: The FCC Scores a Hat Trick of Errors on Internet Regulation

"We are moving at high speed, " says Dr Ndemo, who was one of the most vocal supporters of the campaign to wire up the region.

BBC: Is Kenya sabotaging its broadband future?