Wrong. When you build a customer a Metro fiber circuit, the ring is already built, often years before. You simply pull wavelengths out of the fiber and drop them off at at the meet-me room in the POP. Source: I used to do this.

>"It's also pretty easy to buy dark fiber from two different vendors that are reselling in the same bundle or have their bundles placed in the same conduit."

Wrong again. If you are purchasing an IRU on dark fiber you know exactly who owns the physical assets. If you are purchasing wavelengths from a reseller they will happily disclose whose network they are reselling. Additionally you can request the CLR/DLR for your circuit and see exactly how it's built. You can also easily avoid resellers and not worry at all about this.

Lastly you seem to not understand the difference between long haul and metro fiber.