In the specific case of Portugal, broadband (both fixed and mobile) is becoming very cheap: 7€ a month for a 500 Mbps connection and 8€ a month for 5G access with 100 GB of data included. Although it could even be cheaper if there were other options for users with less demanding needs...

"By Frontier's own calculations, it could have made an extra $10 billion by investing in fiber rollouts, but it chose not to make that money, because the stock analysts at institutional investment funds would punish any telco that committed to capital expenditures with long-term payouts. Since Frontier's execs were mostly paid in stock, they decided not to risk a drop in their personal net worth, and so they left ten billion on the table and millions of customers stuck on 19th century copper-line infrastructure – technology that dated back to Samuel Morse and the telegraph.

Frontier was especially interested in customers who had no alternatives – no cable or fixed wireless companies that could offer competition for Frontier's own terrible service. These customers were booked as an "asset" and their connections were earmarked for substandard maintenance and slow upgrades. The old Lily Tomlin gag goes, "We don't care, we don't have to, we're the phone company." But Frontier really cared about the customers who had no alternative – they cared about royally fucking those customers.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold the marvel that is the efficient free market!

Municipal fiber is a godsend. It's fast, cheap and reliable, and it is an engine for economic development. Of course, the Trump administration is running away from municipal fiber – indeed, from all fiber – as fast as it can, because every fiber installation competes with Elon Musk's satellite based internet service, Skylink:"

https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/03/we-dont-care-we-dont-have-to/#were-the-phone-company

#USA #Fiber #Broadband #MunicipalFiber #Starlink #Oligopolies #BigTelco

If you're going to spend that sort sort of money on a network infrastructure, you might as well built it yourself and do it right.

#municipalfiber

https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/11/21/he-rallied-41-neighbors-to-build-lightning-fast-fiber-optic-community