BACK in 1987, when the birds were still singing - and Cable and Wireless was so secure in its franchise it could say such things - company barkers used to claim it was cheaper to call New York than for New York to call Hong Kong.
What they did not say was that it was only cheaper if your calls were only three minutes or so.
AT & T, for instance, made it expensive only for the first three minutes before dropping its rates to a level that would encourage people to keep talking.
Cable and Wireless charged the same amount for the first, the 20th or the 60th minute.
Its claim was only true in the narrow sense, but companies that do not compete do not even have to be clever most of the time.
It was not, for instance, clever when it came to charging for data transmission in the early days. Cable and Wireless had a convoluted levy that involved an expensive mix of characters and lines.