The government will not prevent companies from building their own networks, however.

Why would a company try to prevent a town from building itself a faster network?

"There is nothing in international law that prevents countries from building any kind of plant they want," he said.

"Are you trying to prevent the road from being built because of those natural gas wells?"

Obstacles also prevented the project from being built on the second site.

The city council's legal moves meant to prevent the bridge from being built failed.

However, later that year, lack of funding prevented the bridge from being built.

It seemed to be coming together in 2003, until politics and financial pressure prevented the ballpark from being built.

So he calculated that the best way to prevent the device from being built was to become involved with Armstrong's company.

Chief among the obstacles is its enormous cost, which may prevent some nations from building an extensive network.