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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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.
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