I live in a rural area and have fiber to the home from our electric co-op. It's amazing: $99 symmetric gigabit and rock solid service.
On the other hand AT&T is the phone provider here and selling DSL is the least of their worries. One of my clients (a block from the phone switch office) needed DSL as a backup to their fiber connection and AT&T can't provide it because their "equipment is already full". As I see it that's the damage of a monopoly; luckily for us we have proactive co-ops that can compete on projects of that size or we'd have no wired internet.
On the other hand AT&T is the phone provider here and selling DSL is the least of their worries. One of my clients (a block from the phone switch office) needed DSL as a backup to their fiber connection and AT&T can't provide it because their "equipment is already full". As I see it that's the damage of a monopoly; luckily for us we have proactive co-ops that can compete on projects of that size or we'd have no wired internet.