> The two basically hold a duopoly on nationwide last-mile access
This is obviously not true since neither Verizon nor AT&T operate hardline access nationwide. Even if you mean copper phone wires specifically, you're leaving out CenturyLink.
Copper phone lines are of course the slowest last mile hardlines. Coax is far superior, and cable ISPs are growing relative to DSL--where the choices are Comcast vs Verizon DSL (for example), Comcast has higher market share.
Verizon FiOS competes directly with Comcast, but is offered in only about 20 metropolitan areas--and even then, incompletely. (FiOS is available in DC but not in Alexandria, which is right across the river.) Verizon stopped growing their FiOS footprint years ago.
> Verizon and AT&T would drop their residential landline business in a heartbeat if Comcast weren’t around driving demand for it
Verizon and AT&T (and CenturyLink) are required by law to provide residential telephone landlines to anyone who asks for it. What does that have to do with last-mile broadband?
This is obviously not true since neither Verizon nor AT&T operate hardline access nationwide. Even if you mean copper phone wires specifically, you're leaving out CenturyLink.
Copper phone lines are of course the slowest last mile hardlines. Coax is far superior, and cable ISPs are growing relative to DSL--where the choices are Comcast vs Verizon DSL (for example), Comcast has higher market share.
https://www.tellusventure.com/blog/cable-gains-subs-as-consu...
Verizon FiOS competes directly with Comcast, but is offered in only about 20 metropolitan areas--and even then, incompletely. (FiOS is available in DC but not in Alexandria, which is right across the river.) Verizon stopped growing their FiOS footprint years ago.
> Verizon and AT&T would drop their residential landline business in a heartbeat if Comcast weren’t around driving demand for it
Verizon and AT&T (and CenturyLink) are required by law to provide residential telephone landlines to anyone who asks for it. What does that have to do with last-mile broadband?