There was a time when visualizing the last mile was pretty straightforward – it was the copper wire that connected a telephone to a local switching office, typically less than a mile away. The telephone service, the local loop and the telephone set were all owned, installed and operated by a telecommunications carrier. Coaxial television cable eventually provided some competition for the last mile, but very few options were really available everywhere. Fast forward fifty years and the landscape has changed dramatically. Wiring options now include fibre optics and fixed wireless, the Internet acts as the multimedia digital backbone, and mobile wireless access is nearly ubiquitous. Telephony is just one of many popular applications.