There are exchanges where you can buy and sell stocks, futures, pork bellies, wine and even pollution allowances. Why not an exchange for the trading of digital bits and bytes?”That is my dream,” said Hamadoun Touré, secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency based in Geneva that sets international communications standards.The exchange would let telephone networks, mobile operators, satellite providers and other telecommunications companies trade capacity on their systems. Network operators spotting potential bottlenecks could buy extra capacity, ensuring the smooth functioning of phone services, cellphone networks, the Internet and other communications links. Those with excess capacity could sell bandwidth, helping to limit the financial losses that occur when networks sit idle.To read more of this story in the International Herald Tribune, see iht.com/articles/2008/06/29/technology/byte30.php or nytimes.com/2008/06/30/technology/30byte.html.