The explanation provided is actually counter to one we are often told: > But, in 1990, then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided that BT’s rapid and exte

The explanation provided is actually counter to one we are often told: > But, in 1990, then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided that BT’s rapid and extensive rollout of fibre optic broadband was anti-competitive and held a monopoly on a technology and service that no other telecom company could do. > In the US, a judge was appointed by Congress to break up AT&T. And so AT&T became things like BellSouth and at that point, political decisions were made that crippled the roll out of optical fibre across the rest of the western world, because the rest of the countries just followed like sheep. > This created a very stop-start roll-out which doesn’t work with fibre optic – it needs to be done en masse. You needed economy of scale. You could not roll out fibre to the home for 1% of Europe and make it economic, you had to go whole hog. It probably didn't help that the companies in question all thought of the internet as a information medium (the next television or radio!) and not like a grid (a la a utility). So it wasn't clear that there is innately a natural monopoly.