1.   Cable and Wireless said Monday that it would build metropolitan networks in Tokyo and Osaka using a mixture of fiber, DSL and local multipoint distribution service technologies.

2.   If highway ramps are the popular analogy for metropolitan networks, the long-distance communications network is also often compared with the intercity railroad system.

3.   The highway metaphor is popular because the crucial missing links are within the metropolitan networks that connect businesses and homes to the high-speed long-distance fiber.

4.   These metropolitan networks are often seen as the communications equivalent of congested highway on-ramps and off-ramps.