Re: No mystery
I live in Romania, where the most corrupted politicians in Europe also live. But we still have Gigabit fiber at home, for no more than 8 euros per month. And decent 4G speeds. Want to know why? Because we started from scratch, and without too much regulation.
Initially, the former national telco did not allow acces to local loops. And when it was forced to, it built distribution closets outside the central offices, which made local loops expensive to reach. So competition started to build fiber networks literally hanging from any poles they could rent. Yes, very ugly, but efficient. Competition was fierce, and we had at least one “neighbourhood” provider to choose from. Only helped by stronger regulation big names started to buy smaller competitors. Luckily, one of them had already grown big, and it is still hungry for market share.
4G? Of course cellular networks were regulated right from the beginning, but competition remained healthy. And people did not mind too much about having base stations right above their roofs (or in their yard). Rent was good enough incentive, because personal income was low. Then, when high speed wireless networks arrived, people already had a sense of high speed, and radio coverage had been good already.