@#45 ... Streams that are coming over the same wires, in the same trenches, that were dug for cable in the 1980s... ...
Yes and no.
In my area, the ISP has been the coax on the poles with fiber optics. The result is that the coax is only local on my street. The distribution to the street is fiber.
Now, if you are talking about the backbone transit routes, say, from Boston to NYC, yeah, that' a different story.
Back in the 90's when I rode my bicycle around the area, I once came upon a construction crew. I stopped ansd asked them what they were doing.
While they did not say what company they were working for, they did tell me that they were putting into place a Boston-to-NYC fiber line.
(Aside: I have noticed that construction workers seem to be quite open when you talk with them while riding a bicycle...)
So yeah, back then there was a lot of fiber put down into the ground. I remember google being quite aggressive in that area.
