There aren't laws allowing only one provider. In fact those are banned by the FCC (though a few grandfathered Exclusive franchises may exist). On the other han

There aren't laws allowing only one provider. In fact those are banned by the FCC (though a few grandfathered Exclusive franchises may exist). On the other hand a lot of America only got telephone access after the att monopoly was formed in 1913. Most of the rest of the world only has one hardware network run by a well regulated monopoly.