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When the internet took off in the 1990s, which piece of infrastructure experienced one of the most spectacular investment booms?

  • Personal computer factories 249 votes (24.8%)
  • Fibre-optic cable 357 votes (35.6%)
  • Telephone exchanges 219 votes (21.8%)
  • Satellite networks 179 votes (17.8%)

Total votes: 1,004

Answer: Fibre-optic cable

Explanation: During the dot-com boom, investors weren’t only betting on websites. Telecom companies spent enormous sums laying fibre because they expected internet traffic to explode. So much capacity was built that after the bubble burst, there was famously a glut of unused or “dark fibre” — cable already buried in the ground but not yet carrying data.

Yet that apparent overbuilding eventually became useful infrastructure for the internet economy that followed.