I still remember when most of the world had phone service provided by the government post office and telegraph department. It was a very sorry state of affairs. Service was predictably awful; in some countries, new installations could take years.
You would have difficulty finding people who recall that era fondly, other than those beautiful old British phone booths.
Governments have a short memory, I guess. As a result, we have seen a number of places where governments have decided to build their own local communications infrastructure, stepping in where they believe the private sector would not. There may be an argument for such intervention in rural markets, but you would think that urban markets should be able to support the business case for private sector leadership in advanced infrastructure.
Apparently, not so in the UK. In its 2012 Budget, the government announced £100 million to roll-out super-fast broadband in the 10 largest cities of the country.
Perhaps the UK’s functional separation regulatory framework isn’t delivering the kind of incentives for investment that have been touted by some as a model for Canada?