In most countries, the rights to lay those cables are highly restricted by law, and while that reality is perhaps not ideal, it is also unlikely to change. So

In most countries, the rights to lay those cables are highly restricted by law, and while that reality is perhaps not ideal, it is also unlikely to change. So I'm not arguing that it's a natural monopoly, just pointing out that with the existing government regulation that limits the number of entities that may run last-mile cable, we won't see effective competition unless those restrictions are balanced by requirements for shared access. I too would love to somehow have a whole bunch of companies able to lay cable right to my house, but I doubt that will happen. Managing such right-of-way is actually a very hard problem to solve (which is why governments regulate it in virtually (literally?) every country. So I think that's an unlikely outcome.