PA also has two of the major telecoms in their backyard (Comcast in Philadelphia, Verizon's HQ is closer to Philly than NYC) and even the rural areas are relati

PA also has two of the major telecoms in their backyard (Comcast in Philadelphia, Verizon's HQ is closer to Philly than NYC) and even the rural areas are relatively densely populated. The executives want to play with the shiny, new things; so their neighborhoods get implemented first (I've been involved at gigabit rollouts at both companies -- this is actually how it works). There are also a lot of very high net worth areas northwest of Philadelphia (which is all served by FiOS, as is most of the inner city). Median household income is the primary reason telecom deployment happens in one neighborhood vs. another; and the suburbs outside Philly have some of the highest-income zip codes in the country.