Not outside the US. E.g., in our apartment, we can subscribe to fiber, cable, and DSL. On fiber and DSL, there are many ISPs to pick from. However, the prices a

Not outside the US. E.g., in our apartment, we can subscribe to fiber, cable, and DSL. On fiber and DSL, there are many ISPs to pick from. However, the prices are still similar to the US (you just get a lot more bandwidth for the same price). I think it is more that the costs of running an ISP are much higher, you do not only need peering, but the networks including the last mile need to be put in the ground and maintained. Plus, in to some extend, people in areas with high-density populations subsidize expansion into lower-density areas. The VPN market is really different. In principle anyone could start a VPN using just a VPS (it wouldn't be the best, but many VPNs are terrible anyway).