[Scurra]

Far be it from me to defend anyone, but part of the problem - and it's not confined just to telephone infrastructure - is that we in the UK were often among the first to install something. The result is that we also have the oldest, least efficient systems. And although the obvious response is to say "well, install a new one then", that's not so easy unless it was designed from the outset with some sort of expectation of upgrading. Again, that's more true these days but wasn't the case in the nineteenth century...