What do you conclude from cable companies? On the one hand, competition is legally restrained. On the other hand, the cable companies are still somewhat constrained by imperfect substitutes - for instance, wireless is not a great substitute for cable, but it's enough for me to live without it.
Not as much as they use to be from what I understand. Other providers can get right of way access via the city, but building out infrastructure is not easy and is costly and as soon as they build out the incumbent will reduce their prices low enough to not make it worth switching.
The only company that can compete with the cable company at scale is usually the local phone company.
