> How many network connections do you actually have access to in your house. 
> I only have a TV cable and a wire for the phone. I could probably get a 
> fiber installed, but maybe not. And I could probably get a cellular 
> wireless connection to the internet from two different companies.

About the same here actually.

> Everything but the wireless is a government-enforced monopoly.

Oh that's different here, the government-enforced monopoly that owns the 
wire for the phone is forced to let any other company use it.  This only 
happened quite recently (I think 5-10 years ago in the UK), but now there 
are plenty of ISPs to choose from with a wide range of prices.  Some even 
put their own equipment on their end of the line (like Arcor in Germany), 
whilst others presumably rent equipment from the government-enforced 
monopoly.

> Only if you were actually allowed to. Are you allowed to start a new 
> company that runs fiber into everyone's house?

I don't see why not, a company called NTL did this in my mum's street a 
while back.  If you get permission from the council (or whoever) and/or pay 
NTL then you can probably feed your fibre down their pipes too or build your 
own.

Anyway, if you want to start up an ISP, I don't see any reason why you 
can't, there are enough of them around (in UK and Germany at least).

>> Being an ISP is not like, say, providing live coverage of a sporting 
>> event, there is no restriction to how many companies can offer it.
>
> Are you sure?

Well if there is a restriction it is a really big number, the German 
wikipedia page for ISP lists about 25 companies.

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