<i>&gt; Fiber isn&#x27;t very profitable either. There is a reason why AT&amp;T and Verizon have so little interest in building it out.</i><p>It is profitable (Verizon is steadily making money on fiber network, unlike their copper one). Fiber optic network maintenance is just significantly cheaper as Verizon admitted multiple times.<p>The trick also is long term perspective. With common TV gradually dying out, more and more people switch to Internet video. Which means that owners of extensive networks won&#x27;t lose business - they&#x27;ll only get more. So investing in better networks is a good investment. But it&#x27;s long term. And most these telco execs can&#x27;t think long term anymore. Previous Verizon CEO was from the their landline division, and he invested in fiber all the way. But once he was replaced with wireless execs, things changed for the worse.<p><i>&gt; Very few people are willing to upgrade their internet connection beyond whats needed for basic internet service.</i><p>If someone offered those people something comparable to Google Fiber, they would switch. Verizon can do it. They just don&#x27;t want to.