content: You do realize that ISPs, like telcomm's, enjoy an exemption from the normal anti-monopoly rules. The ISPs, by and large, have collaborated (illegally, behind the scenes) to split up the country into territories and charge similar rates so that their competition doesn't cut into profits. As a result we find that ISPs use fairly homogeneous pricing structures and that most areas have woefully little in the way of choice or competition for ISP's. In fact, smaller companies, (Like one a person would start, as you have suggested), are often unable to string their own wires, whether due to the staggering initial cost or the difficult nature of getting permits to do so, and quite frequently end up having to use the wires of the company that provided the poor service in the beginning.