As a company that built its reputation forging telegraph links over what seemed at the time unfeasibly long distances, Cable and Wireless knows how to stretch things out. So it should come as no surprise that we have to wait for more details of its long-planned demerger.

The year since a split was postponed because of market turbulence hasn’t been wasted. Visit the websites of the Worldwide and CWI arms of the group and you could already be visiting two separate companies, their logos polished to a satisfying sheen. Richard Lapthorne, C&W’s chairman, is no longer talking in orotund terms about a “value realisation event”, but has plumped for demerger of the Worldwide business (that’s the one that most of us still think of as the UK division, under hard-charging John Pluthero) to form two listed companies.