[thegeek]

However these days these are big MPLS fibre networks, so although the control system and people you phone are possibly based in Tower the route the data will take probably goes nowhere near it. IP changes everything, hence once the traditional phone network goes next year there'll be need for a lot of their exchanges.... It's all in the 'cloud'

The point-to-point 'local end' product still exists. For most of the last decade it was based on Nevion media converters and CWDM, so you could fit four 3G video services (in each direction) on a single fibre. They were in the process of replacing them at my previous workplace, and I was under the impression it was just a newer Nevion product (using TICO compression) on the same bits of fibre, though I didn't get a chance to properly investigate it before they got ceased.

The MPLS network is obviously a bit easier to relocate!