I'm also in DC area and live in a house where the previous owners had Fios. We have Comcast and we are happy with it. I get over 200 megabits down, only about 12 megabits up. I know Fios can get us faster uplink speed. But I don't care. This uplink is fast enough. I seldom upload much of anything. I remember when my uplink was 1.5 megabits years ago, and I was happy with that, so I'm not going to get Fios just to get more speed I don't need.
The Comcast X1 box is excellent and it's the first time I've had a cable box that is even decent. The voice command is great. One night I hit the mic button and said "Saturday Night Fever" and seconds later we were watching the movie. Maybe Fios has a box that is as good. I have no idea. But their marketing gives me no reason to believe they have a box that is as good, so I have no reason to switch. When both have Internet that is more than good enough for me, things like a box are going to make all the difference.
The simple fact is that cable Internet is more than good enough for most people, so they are not going to switch to get some uplink speed or some faster ping.
My neighbor has Fios and asked me about how happy I am with Comcast and said he is considering getting Comcast. Clearly Fios is not offering something so amazing that people would not consider leaving.
I would guess that Google Fiber would give Alphabet wiggle room when it comes to net neutrality etc. They will have to buy content from Comcast and AT&T. They could end up competing on search and advertising against Verizon. I could see advantages to being able to argue legally that they also are an ISP as well as a media company and search provider. Just my opinion/hope though.
I'm not sure I see why the election will make things more favorable for Google Fiber. Nor do I necessarily agree with the statement that "consumers want it." FiOS is awesome in the D.C. metro area. I get 150 mbps symmetric all times of day with 8 ms pings to my hosted server. In rural Maryland. Yet, Verizon has struggled to hit even 33% market penetration. It's incomprehensible to me, but most people seem to care more about television viewing options than broadband. My parents wanted to ditch FiOS because of all the Indian channels Cox Cable had!!
> 2. Cable coaxial wire - this is a big thick wire that continues to upgrade nicely. DOCSIS 3.0 is basically the same old 1980s/1990s cable with better comms protocols. It's getting to the point to where they can compete on a reasonable basis with single strand fiber, at a lower speed and price point. So cable companies build out the back-end with fiber, but don't have to replant single homes.
Modern HFC networks are nothing like the 1980s/1990s networks even when you're talking about the wires in the ground. The only thing that hasn't been upgraded is the coaxial cable into the house.