we have fiber in half of SF via Sonic - where there are overhead wires. The other half of SF has its utilities underground making economics more difficult.

https://bestneighborhood.org/fiber-tv-and-internet-san-franc... has a detailed map, by provider, if you wanna dig into the gory details, but there is fiber, just not everywhere.

Not where I am

American government doesn't work for its own people. This is by design.

What?

> where even the most rural places have fiber!

No need for the hyperbole. I know for a fact that you don't get fiber in the remote countryside of France

SF is mostly served by AT&T, who abandoned any pretense of upgrading their decrepit copper 20 years ago, and Comcast, whose motto is “whatcha gonna do, go get DSL?”

AT&T has put fiber out in little patches, but only in deals with a guaranteed immediate ROI, so it would mean brand new buildings, where they know everyone will sign up, or deals like my old apartment, where they got their service included in the HOA fee, so 100% adoption rate guaranteed! AT&T loves not competing for business.

Sure, others have been able to painstakingly roll out fiber in some places, but it costs millions of dollars to string fiber on each street and to get it to buildings.

Lived in an older neighborhood in Georgia a couple years back. A new neighborhood across the street had it (AT&T), but we didn't.

Caught an AT&T tech in the field one day, and he claimed that if 8 (or 10—memory's a little fuzzy) people in the neighborhood requested it, they'd bring it in.

I never did test it, but thought it interesting that they'd do it for that low a number. Of course, it may have been because it was already in the area.

Still, may be worth the ask for those who don't already have it.

In the US, it’s not about money or demand. The more entrenched cities (especially in California, for some historic reasons/legislation) tend to have a much more difficult time getting fiber installed. It all comes down to bureaucracy and NIMBYism.

It's just SF, there's fiber-to-the-pole or better in most of the LA area, even if the only last-foot service is DSL or cable

Sure, but it took much longer for it to roll out in LA than it should have, and even then (as you pointed out) the furthest they could get was the pole in most cases. FTH is mostly reserved to the more suburban areas (the Valleys) and the independent cities.