The technical term is "local loop unbundling". There's multiple levels of sharing, but just having regulation to force telecoms to lease the most local part (t

The technical term is "local loop unbundling". There's multiple levels of sharing, but just having regulation to force telecoms to lease the most local part (the cable that goes from your house to a shared switch) goes a long way. The US isn't well-regulated on that front. In France, not only is the local loop (and much of the network) shared, when Orange came to install fiber in our apartment they had to install four fiber ports + wires in the same cable, so we can switch to any the other major 3 operators painlessly (or, we could if any of them had fiber in our building). The infrastructure-sharing regulations, as well as aggressive anti-trust action, is why France has one of the best internet coverages in the world at one of the lowest prices, 15 years after the public telecom operator was privatized.