Sure to sell is one thing, sure to make a profit is quite another. ISPs have cost models along the lines of "requires x permits from y entities and z meters of

Sure to sell is one thing, sure to make a profit is quite another. ISPs have cost models along the lines of "requires x permits from y entities and z meters of digging", except more complex, and the costs have to be smaller than the expected additional sales over a fairly small number of future years. The expected additional sales, because some/many of the customers will buy a 16/1Mbps DSL connection if the provider doesn't offer them 500/500 fiber, and the price won't be that much lower.