This is pretty tinfoil hat of me. I have this theory that many companies that are “competing” with each other in an area (Cox and AT&T for me) seem to be ceding areas to each other by upgrading certain sections and not others while avoiding overlap for long periods, functionally only giving buyers one choice.

In New Orleans, Cox has offered “gigablast” (yes that’s what it’s called) Internet in some areas while AT&T offers fiber. Now they often don’t overlap, which isn’t wild given they are incrementally upgrading a large area section by section, so I can easily see wanting to be first to an area your competitor isn’t offering a comparable product. But here’s the rub: Cox also offers 5mb down/600kb up in some areas of downtown New Orleans. That is unusable Internet. No one would get anything but AT&T, who hasn’t laid fiber in that area yet, but gives you 25+.

That’s not competition, that’s the appearance of it.