The cable monopolies are the robber barons of our time. Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, and, Microsoft all have competition. There is no real alternative to my cable internet provider. Satellite and 5G cellular are not effective competition and the old landline phone companies seem to have given up on expanding residential fiber.
Ireland (and I suspect other European countries) seem to have found a good model.
Right now, we have the following:
- FTTH networks (3 - POTS successor, electric company, government rollout)
- cable TV networks in urban areas (docsis, fiber coming allegedly)
- fixed wireless
- 4g / 5g fixed installs
- 4g / 5g hotspots
- LEO / geostationary satellite
For most technologies (except cable), there is competition through retail companies that rely on wholesale providers for the network. Residents in urban areas typically have access to 1-2 high speed (FTTH / fast docsis) options but coverage is still variable countrywide.
In most urban areas, there are metro networks that businesses can tap into which reduces the cost of landing (diverse) fibers.
The competition is other local companies offering fiber. Around here, the incumbent telco offers fiber (Verizon Fios.)
And some of the problems are technical. To do those mid-split upgrades that provide more bandwidth, they'll need to replace every amplifier between the user and the HFC node. That's a lot of truck rolls. Only to find out there's tons of interference on those frequencies.... more maintenance. It's no wonder it's taken years to deploy DOCSIS 3.1.