Time to crack the whip and restore sanity in these markets. The telcos have become a law unto themselves.
Internet is a terrible commodity, because so much of the cost of connectivity is wrapped up in laying lines and buying server farms than actually maintaining the infrastructure. And that is really what it is - there is a reason roads aren't private, and why no other animal ever evolved wheels. Some things are best done collectively, and I usually lean libertarian but infrastructure is something you can't effectively leave open to free markets or give to private monopolies, because they are so easy to take through monopolistic practices.
As to cable and high speed internet / cable. Most locations prohibit completion, artificially limiting which company's can sell cable in a given area. They had a rather tough fight getting off the ground even for an incumbent like Verizon.
That is why the cartel of providers is as bad as it is in the US - most localities sold their phone and cable lines to private businesses so they never had to recoup the costs of laying lines, and thus no one can compete with them because they had an unfair advantage from the get-go, and they have their hands in the pockets of every local and state government to keep anyone else from even getting permits to try putting down fiber. Sonic and Google are two rare exceptions to that rule.