Landlord exclusivity agreements are not illegal, but they’re also only really an issue for large multi-dwelling units. Only 17% of housing units nationwide are in a building with more than four units (and 70% of housing units are single family homes or mobile homes). It’s just not a driving force outside a handful of the largest cities.
You can also add a layer of conjecture, that there are cities that have more competition because lobbying power is weaker. What makes you think Kansas City or Provo or Austin or Atlanta fit into this category more so than Mountain View? And it’s not like most of Silicon Valley is “already well served by multiple providers”—why not build there? I think it’s obvious that the answer to that is not “lobbying” but “blue state cities make it an expensive pain in the ass to build anything including fiber.”
You can also add a layer of conjecture, that there are cities that have more competition because lobbying power is weaker. What makes you think Kansas City or Provo or Austin or Atlanta fit into this category more so than Mountain View? And it’s not like most of Silicon Valley is “already well served by multiple providers”—why not build there? I think it’s obvious that the answer to that is not “lobbying” but “blue state cities make it an expensive pain in the ass to build anything including fiber.”