Better just to accept that telecommunications makes us more socially, economically and intellectually efficient and leave it at that. But now it is time to do telegraph poles. 6 The case for energy proportional computing, Barroso, IEEE Transactions, December 2007. Cable Network and Fibre Network Technologies and Topologies Telegraph Poles as a Proxy for Regulatory and Competition Policy This chapter is nominally about telegraph poles also known as utility poles but telegraph poles are in effect a proxy for regulatory and competition policy, SO the discussion will be rather broader. Have a look outside your window at the nearest telegraph pole and have a look at what is on it, probably either power lines or twisted pair. Then consider how long the pole has been there, who owns the pole, maintains the pole and makes money out of the pole and then consider other uses for the pole, what else the pole could profitably be used for. It might also be useful have a look at some of the other street furniture including telecommunication street cabinets, lamp posts and camera installations and to consider what goes on beneath our feet as well. It does not take long to come to the conclusion that the way 'stuff' is delivered is not particularly efficient or effective. This is nothing new and before we grapple with those poles let's take a short journey underground and take a look not at telecommunications but at the sewage system. 14.2 Under the Streets of London In the 1840s parliament ruled that all houses in London should drain into sewers that then ultimately ended up in the River Thames, which became too contaminated to drink. There were several outbreaks of cholera and in 1858 the smell of the Thames (The Great Stink) caused Parliament to go into recess. As a result, Sir Joseph Bazalgette¹ was commissioned to turn 318 million bricks into the sewer system that still (just about) evacuates London today, a process started in 1859. Bazalgette constructed wide egg-shaped, brick-walled sewer tunnels rather than the narrow htt