On Saturday September 17 2016 20:44, you wrote to me:
TL> Things are different here. There are many ISPs, but only one telco TL> which actually has physical lines, so no matter what ISP you choose, TL> service is supplied over the same lines.
That describes the situation regarding the old telephone lines here. The wires are owned by the incumbent (KPN) but they have to allow others to offer services over those wires.
The important difference here is that for dedades there has been another network in use: the coax cable. 90% of the households in The Netherlands do not just have a pair of wires for the telephone come to the house, but also a coax cable.
In the beginning the functions were strictly seperated. The twisted pair was for the telephone and the coax was a one way distribution system for televison.
But then when the market opened some 20 years ago, the cable companies added two way functionality to the cable and started offering telephony and not much later boadband internet as well.
But the cable companies still have a momopoly on their medium. The do not have to allow third parties on the cable and so they don't.
And now in some areas fiber is coming as a third physical medium. And to top it off there is 4G...
In theory there is plenty of competition. In practice newcomers have a hard time competing with the cable companies. The coax has been there for 30+ years. The investments on what lays under the surface have been paid off decades ago. The newcomers have to invest in digging first.
TL> In some of the bigger cities, you get a choice of telcos and even TL> cable providers, but not out here.
