Those who have gigabit Internet speeds at home thanks to a 'fiber to the home' (FTTH) connection are probably more than happy with their Internet access. I benchmarked such a connection recently and I guess I'd be more than happy as well to have such a line at my home in Cologne. Given some time, perhaps…But I can't help thinking that once a fiber cable is laid into the streets and houses by a network operator, it effectively creates a (next generation) monopoly, as no other network operator will have an incentive to put a fiber into the same ground as well. So the monopoly moves from copper to fiber as once users have become accustomed to fiber access they are unlikely to go back to something that is significantly slower. Again, the only competition could come from cable operators who also have fiber cables close to buildings today and can thus extend fiber connectivity from there to individual buildings. Hm, sounds like operator monopoly 2.0!?