lesmikesell I’d guess those costs don’t include interest on the debt for the cost of pulling fiber to homes. Otherwise if fiber is so profitable, why aren’t dozens of vendors building it out to my house?
Because they don’t have the rights of way. In most areas, you have a cable company and a telco that have the right of way. Where I live it’s Comcast and AT&T (formerly Bellsouth, formerly Southern Bell, formerly Ma Bell before the breakup).
These companies have had these rights of way for decades, so they can deploy whatever they want in it a lot more cheaply than a new company starting up. It’s also why they’re (theoretically) regulated; they get to have a relative monopoly in exchange for having to follow certain rules. AT&T feeds their PFPs from tunnels that have manhole covers that say “Bell System” on them; that’s how long they’ve had those paths.
It used to be the phone company for communications and the cable companies for television; they provided different services. That’s why two were allowed. Now the line has blurred and they both provide data services, and are sort of “grandfathered in” to their duopoly status.
Both have been pulling fiber like crazy, but Comcast has stopped short of the last mile, keeping coax going to people’s homes in most places. AT&T has been bringing the fiber right into the house, which is much better in the long run. Fiber doesn’t go bad, it does not corrode, it is immune to damage from lightning. Obviously it’s still susceptible to physical damage; Mr. Backhoe and wayward vehicles don’t discriminate. But unlike copper/coax, it doesn’t just rot in place over time, so maintenance over the long term is a lot less expensive. It also doesn’t require power in the field. Notice how many CATV power supply cabinets are out there sometime.
Fiber to the home is the future; companies really should be moving to it as quickly as possible.