I'm glad you wrote this as it is far more coherent than I was writing in my head while walking to the metro station. To give an example of the type of competit

I'm glad you wrote this as it is far more coherent than I was writing in my head while walking to the metro station. To give an example of the type of competition an Isp upstart would face, just look at what happened with google fiber. That was a legal battle every step of the way for them and the incumbents defended against google's deep pockets. You have to have a heck of a defense to fend of a Google invasion. Yes, local government regulations played a role in this, but they blocked federal attempts to unravel the mess of regulations that allowed entire cities to be Comcast cities or time warner cities, and people argued it was a good thing to stop this. Look at the few cities that can and do offer municipal broadband - competition thrives and consumers have good choices, and the big three have to play ball to get customers; rolling out new lines, better speeds and prices, no caps. Tacoma, WA has municipal broadband and it's great; you have lots of options, including Comcast and century link if you desire. And it's this way because of the municipal, not in spite of it.