in canada, the taxpayers built the network, then a corrupt government signed it over to a private cartel so they could charge rent.
it sounds like you're making some kind of Ayn Rand free market allusion. free markets dont apply when Dagne Taggart owns the government and closes all barriers to entry so that her railroads will never have meaningful competition.
In San Francisco we have a TON of small wireless ISPs fulfilling the needs of the companies that do business here, without using the last mile telco access.
I'm not living in a dystopian Ayn Rand reality; I'm suggesting an alternative method of delivery, one which is not subject to the same regulatory hurdles.
Of course you can't go and jack into BT's network and undercut them, but you can probably build a WISP without running afoul of the law.
Please correct me if I'm mistaken :).
I was referring to cellular networks and wired networks.
I'm guessing the hurdle is still legal/political. I'm gonna look into this, thanks for the insight
http://villagetelco.org/mesh-potato/
Basically it's an Analog Telephone Adapter and a Fixed Wireless receiver built into one, so for a very small price you can deliver bandwidth+telephony to your users.
Cellular and Wired are completely fubarr'd, that's why Africa bypassed them.