I can see some of this being true. A copper line isn't a continuous thing from the exchange to the customer. It's made of a number of sections that are joined

I can see some of this being true. A copper line isn't a continuous thing from the exchange to the customer. It's made of a number of sections that are joined together. Now someone who once worked for a large British telecoms company once told me that they'd done some modelling, maybe using something like system dynamics if I was guessing, to gauge the effect of work on the network. Any interaction with the equipment, whether to set up lines for a customer or even fix faults leads to more faults. So it ends up being more profitable to just leave equipment in place than to reuse it. Based on that I would say that having all the pairs terminating at the cab instead of the exchange and using remotely configurable equipment would be a greater improvement again. Just guessing you understand, I have no inside knowledge. ;)