Two legacy telephone companies and the nation's biggest cable TV company are upgrading their legacy metallic delivery infrastructures to fiber for business customers. Not targeted for the upgrades are residential users.
Residential voice telephone service was cross subsidized by business customers. There isn't a similar situation when it comes to advanced digital telecommunications. That's because under current U.S. regulatory policy, it's classified like the information services of the 1990s dialup era, AmericaOnline and CompuServe, and not as telecommunications services.
Information services -- regulated under Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 -- are considered optional, discretionary services and not utilities. Hence, they are not subject to universal service and anti-redlining requirements, providing no regulatory incentive for telcos and cablecos to offer fiber connections to residences.
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