when stockholm started going berserk with the telephone, everybody in the neighborhood wanted to connect with everybody. and the result was tens of thousands of telephone lines connected over rooftops that they almost turned the sky dark all year.
a swedish engineer came up with a more neat way of concentrating and interconnecting wires over the roof, and the sky exchange was born. unfortunately, in sweden's harsh winters, this contraption and methodology didn't survive for long. but for a few years, they got their phone-sex fix. :p