<i>&gt; They may never make their money back on it.</i><p>That&#x27;s not true. FiOS is actually pretty profitable for them (this data is public). It&#x27;s pretty much the only thing that is profitable there. Their copper networks are not proftiable. The reason they don&#x27;t want to invest in it is the conflict of interests and shortsighted stupidity of their current top management. They want to spend money on wireless, from which they expect to get more profit margins short term. Investing in landline networks is a longer term investment and they simply can&#x27;t think in such categories anymore.