PARIS — 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?

The exchange would let telephone networks, mobile operators, satellite providers and other telecommunications companies trade capacity on their systems.

Applying a marketplace solution to the allocation of bandwidth, Mr. Touré said, could improve efficiency and reduce prices. That might help with one of his main goals, to bridge the digital divide in places like Africa, he added.