I'm not sure about European tel-cos, but i can tell you of a north American telco that is a virtual government monopoly (no other private company has comparable

I'm not sure about European tel-cos, but i can tell you of a north American telco that is a virtual government monopoly (no other private company has comparable rates and service), Sasktel, they have an interesting history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasktel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasktel They were the first, or one of the first companies in north america to offer: Video-On-Demand, Fiber to the home, IPTV, HDTV over IPTV, HSPA, ADSL, etc. This is while servicing a province with roughly half a million people and is larger than every American state minus Alaska and Texas. While at the same time serving hundreds of small communities with full speed access. This is at the same time as offering plans and service that is much better than what you can get in the surrounding provinces that have cities that have more people than the whole province. In some ways, privately owned companies that only have to compete with 2 or 3 other entities is far worse than a government monopoly.