[cowmix]

My favorite example is here in the Phoenix metro area. We had DSL and cable internet pretty early compared to the rest of the country (mid/late 90s), but then things stagnated.

Then in 2014, Google Fiber announced they were expanding here and, all of a sudden, the local telco and cable companies (Centurylink and Cox) started rolling out fiber all over the place -- like pretty much overnight. Then Google backed off, and the incumbents slowed their roll too.

It was a on-the-nose reminder that these companies can move fast when they think a real competitor might show up.

[senorrib]

Weirdly, I live in a somewhat rural part of Brazil, and all providers are small players. They’re all offering 1Gi FTTH and are now competing on price. Meanwhile, the closest metro area still suffers with cable internet topping at 600M and low availability.

Some big cities have seen a surge of small providers too, which has been great for consumers.

That said, I dont buy the “natural monopoly” argument at all, especially trying to compare it to water supply.

[projektfu]

My wife is from Rio Grande do Norte and I'm always impressed that most of it has 1GB fiber, but roads are generally in poor repair and cell service is lacking outside of cities.

The ISPs are not always good at maintaining that raw capacity, though.