My understanding (i.e., personal experience) is that many areas only have one or two providers (same with health insurance). Without competition, it's not a true free market as the companies have no incentive to improve since everyone just has to deal with their subpar product or forego it all together.
Curiously, the city I'm currently living in will soon be rolling out it's own fiber and the existing providers are all scrambling to improve their infrastructure and "bribe" existing customers with free gadgets (e.g., Google home speakers, etc.) because they know that their current offerings are not competitive and that they would go out of business overnight if they stood by and did nothing in the meantime.
Curiously, the city I'm currently living in will soon be rolling out it's own fiber and the existing providers are all scrambling to improve their infrastructure and "bribe" existing customers with free gadgets (e.g., Google home speakers, etc.) because they know that their current offerings are not competitive and that they would go out of business overnight if they stood by and did nothing in the meantime.