Several recent articles and news reports over the past week or two made me again ponder on the future of ‘bit pipes’. Long the fear of many operators that they would be commoditised into a ‘mere bit pipe’; I’ve long wondered why it would be so bad, after all. Lots of other industries do well out of commodities, provided they understand the rules: – high economies of scale, low operating costs. But that’s applying market logic to the communications industry where economic logic and regulation long...