Google’s groundbreaking Fiber program, which offers 1 gigabit-per-second broadband for just $ 70 per month, has thrived because it takes a different approach to deployment that incumbent ISPs have been reluctant to embrace. Fiber’s success, however, has already caused other ISPs to change their approach to broadband deployment, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Eventually, this shakeup in broadband services could create an entirely new form of competition in the broadband market.

Federal policies on the availability of wire and radio services created in the 1930s, and updated for cable TV in the 1960s, required service providers to cover entire geographical regions indiscriminately. The idea was to ensure that no part of a city went without access to the communications services that would soon become essential for both businesses and consumers. This led to the longstanding regional monopolies that many cable and internet service providers still hold (and under which many customers still suffer) to this day.

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