A long time ago, so long that the only reference I can find is this, sidewalks, AKA footpaths, were cited as the appropriate analogy for the open network CityLink is building and operating.

"[W]e're providing an electronic footpath [sidewalk] for the city"

Odd then that relatively contemporaneously two other commentators should seize upon the model. Bob Frankston humourously illustrates Telco thinking in tangible, domestic terms using Quality of Stroll in connection with sidewalks and Susan Crawford uses it in explaining "Net Neutrality."

Good to see, telecommunications has for too long presented itself as something uniquely complex, when in fact it is simply just another transportation infrastructure, which historically has required, or best been implemented as, a single operator providing both infrastructure and services. A requirement which has been eliminated by the layered model and better performing hardware and protocols.

Another example arguing the case for structural separation, and perhaps even greater investment in the infrastructure (as in rail and roads in New Zealand) by central and/or local government.