In the UK we have a really odd situation like this. British Telecom was privatised by the government in the 1980s, and since then, it's been split into two arms

In the UK we have a really odd situation like this. British Telecom was privatised by the government in the 1980s, and since then, it's been split into two arms - BT, which is the consumer company, and OpenReach, which is the infrastructure company. OpenReach have to offer access to other providers, and so you can sign up to internet via their lines via Sky, TalkTalk, etc. Simultaneously, in the late 1980s, various regional companies tried to set up cable TV and phone networks by laying their own cable, and eventually they consolidated into NTL, which was eventually rebranded. These have their own fibre cable network, but because it was privately funded and set up, there's no obligation for other companies to have access to it.