"The "invisible hands" of networks and the market are naturally at work weaving a single fabric. It is a familiar lesson, one we have already learned from Microsoft (4). It has turned the geography of Europe and Asia upside down: America has now become virtually the heart of these regions. On average, the cost of dedicated lines between European countries - the famous "information highways" or "backbones" along which Internet traffic passes - is between 17 and 20 times higher than that of equivalent links in the US (5). A Paris-New York or London-New York link is cheaper than Paris-London or Paris-Frankfurt. Virginia has become the hub of intra-European links." The original piece, written in French, can be found
here.