> The model I’d like would be having fiber either be owned by the city or a highly regulated utility, with a market for ISPs to provide service on that infrastructure.
That's how telecoms are organized in NL, although through loosening of regulations, mergers and acquisitions the service geography is reducing to separate islands of non-competing monopolies. Yet, it still works decently well. Also energy is the same (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_the_Neth...)
As a counterexample, the creation of the "energy free market" by spinning off the local infra from the energy brokers and producers has turned into a convenient excuse to screw customers over billing and passing the buck back-and-forth to keep the money.
That's how telecoms are organized in NL, although through loosening of regulations, mergers and acquisitions the service geography is reducing to separate islands of non-competing monopolies. Yet, it still works decently well. Also energy is the same (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_the_Neth...)
As a counterexample, the creation of the "energy free market" by spinning off the local infra from the energy brokers and producers has turned into a convenient excuse to screw customers over billing and passing the buck back-and-forth to keep the money.