I'm in rural Mississippi. AT&T buried fiber lines here a number of years back and never lit them up. I think there were some grants or something. Power company coop ran fiber last year though so AT&T can go to hell.

I’m with you on that. I live in Evanston, IL. For those unaware, it is the first city north of Chicago along Lake Michigan. Hardly a backwater.

On the one hand, I have two competing cable providers (RCN/Astound and Comcast/Xfinity). Being able to swap between services as offers change has been huge (hey, competition is a thing!) Currently I’ve got 1400/40 (measured) on Xfinity.

But fiber? Totally absent. AT&T seems to serve other areas nearby but not mine. Why? No clue. But I’d sure love having a symmetric connection.

Incidentally, there are multiple fiber cables strung on the poles in the alley behind my house. Presumably they are the infrastructure for our two cables cos.

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. I remember speaking with colleagues in various parts of the US (mostly Seattle and Silicon valley areas) and I was shocked by how expensive and relatively low quality internet and mobile connections compared to most of western Europe. I guess having de-facto cartels in AT&T, Verizon, ... that don't encroach in each other territory is a terrible thing