I was wondering who operates each part of the cabling system for internet signals from an ISP to the home, like the ones from the neighborhood fiber to an individual home, and if the cables are shared between different ISPs or if each has their own and how they direct the cables to another ISP if a user changes their ISP.
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Depends on the area really. I know in my area fiber is only offered by Verizon? FiOS. And with above ground wire some areas the cable was ran in 80s by what is now spectrum so you can only get spectrum. But other areas cable was paid for by state or other funding so you can choose provider.
In some places (the regulations are per-state or per-city), phone lines used for DSL internet must be shared between the owner the line (the phone company) and other DSL providers.
Those DSL providers have to pay for the access, of course.
In the days of dial-up, the phone company would own the phone lines. An ISP would essentially just be a slightly specialized business customer with one phone number but a bunch of actual connections to the phone company.
I don’t know the situation for more modern fiber and cable modem.
What you are asking about here is known as “the last mile” for internet delivery. It operates differently in different countries and in the US that means that it can change from state to state or even county to county.
As a general rule, in the US the last mile is owned and operated by your ISP. If you change ISPs then your new one must also have their own “last mile” of fiber or copper cabling.
This is different to how things operate in (for example) europe. In the US a company (normally a cable TV or telephone company) would run the lines to every home, then they would use those lines to sell services like internet.
In Europe, that company is required to offer space on those lines for sale at a reasonable price to other ISPs. In most of the US, this is NOT required. If Virizon ran and owns the lines, then you can only get service from Virizon on those lines. If you want to change ISPs then you must select one that also services your home.
This is important. In most of the US you have only 1 or two choices for ISP (the local cable company, and the local telephone company). In many areas it’s only 1 choice. This is very much NOT the case in europe where most people have the choice of several ISPs who are all using the same lines.
This depends largely on the carrier. For example, in the U.S., Verizon might own all the fiber and copper cable in a given large distribution area. FCC mandates that they allow other operators to use the infrastructure if they are willing to pay Verizon for access. So a smaller tier provider might also be using copper wire pairs owned by Verizon to provide phone service. The fiber however is not so straight-forward. In a fiber to the home network, the fibers connect to an optical splitter somewhere in or near your neighborhood. From the splitter, it goes to the head end equipment at a Verizon cabinet or central office. Although it’s technically feasible to put another provider’s optical signal on the same infrastructure, the planning, integration and complexity of managing a shared fiber plant makes this approach a no-go. But Verizon might have some spare fiber they are not “lighting” up that they can lease to other providers however, getting to the subscriber’s home from that fiber is quite expensive so the typical approach is for a competing operator to choose underserved or more rural areas.
In all cases if a subscriber has a damaged fiber or wire, its up to the operator to dispatch their own techs (or a subcontracted tech) to make the repairs. Sometimes they might have a repair contract in place with the actual owner of the cable which might be Verizon or AT&T. BTW, the big telcos like Verizon and AT&T ALWAYS use their own cabling infrastructure. You wont see them leasing any fiber or copper from someone else.
A Telecommunications company (could be the same as the ISP) owns the customer network. The lines from them to the internet are handled by a carrier provider.. Level 3 is a big one in the US.
I have ATT fiber at my house and for the last three weeks a neighboring has been digging holes and pulling fiber for their own system. In this case each system has their own fiber in the ground. Jokes on the new non-union company, I am sticking with the unionized company.
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