Really, it is? How come in 2012, I, who live in decent sized US city (Metro area is about 140k), still pay about $40 for 10Mbit connectivity, barely better than I could get 10 years ago?
Because utilities tend to plateau when they provide "enough" capacity? The house I'm in has the original water main and electrical service from 1900 and 1940. Being a commodity says nothing of the price (/trend), just the fungibility.