Those fools were given billions of dollars to upgrade the stuff by state and local governments and never followed through.  They either need to write a check on the order of about $50 billion, or they need to follow through on what they promised.<p>Let&#x27;s all pretend they didn&#x27;t just run fiber in the areas they needed it for cell towers and ignored everything else.  And as for profitability - it&#x27;s a long-term investment.  If they&#x27;re laying the right fiber, it will last them a <i>LONG</i> time without needing to be replaced.