Why not look at companies that had something like that ? Take the railway companies in Europe versus everyone else. The railway (ie. "socialist") optical lines

Why not look at companies that had something like that ? Take the railway companies in Europe versus everyone else. The railway (ie. "socialist") optical lines : 1) use ancient infrastructure on SDH (on direct current, meaning they have to buy ridiculously expensive equipment. Not that they've looked for better in the last 20 years) 1b) therefore the speeds attainable over government fiber are pathetic, compared to private lines. 2) are VERY hard to deal with. 3) are very expensive compared to private lines (except in cases where, read on) 4) delays are legendary (months to open up a frequency on an existing tract that usually works fine if I turn it up before contract agreement) 5) Termination fees are ridiculous, and of course, you can't just do it yourself. Suppose you have fiber delivered to the edge of your own property and want it linked up to the inside of your building. You'd think, well I'll just do that, costs me $150 in equipment, a drill, a shovel and an afternoon. No dice. You have to pay $18000 to the railway company to make this happen. 6) Their engineers are utterly clueless when it comes to fiber. "I want a 6 km fiber from X to Y, are you going to regen ? Using what equipment ?". You get empty stares. They regen if they pass a regen station, using their equipment (that they can't even NAME) and if not, they don't. You're screwed if they regen. There's no good reason to regen a 6km fiber since 1985 or so. AARGH. Then you get to explain to your boss how you just paid $35k for a fiber, and you need to redo it, lovely. Or you have to get a 20km cable where a 3 km one would normally suffice but you need to avoid regen stations. Great. They also have advantages, of course 1) reach. You need a fiber delivered to any city that has a railway line ? They have one. You need a fiber in a LEX ? They've got fibers to every LEX. 2) they are utterly unbeatable if you need a new fiber. They can lay down fiber while moving on average 30km/h. Digging fiber has speeds that are expressed in meters/week. Now I don't know why this happens, but I'm not very impressed with a government based fiber holding company. And yes, they do connect end-users. Hell, it's usually a better idea to use the existing telco to connect to their fibers (they get to use their own amplification equipment). Don't know why this makes a difference at all. There are also government fiber providers that I am impressed with. The one of the government of the city of Amsterdam for example gets it right. They don't regen, but if you need it you can rent racks in buildings along the fiber path and place your own equipment, and they pass through the fiber or not depending on your requirements. Unfortunately it's the city of Amsterdam. The reach is somewhat limited.