said by Pizz :

If the Cable/Telco's were smart, they would try and ink an agreement with this FTTH muni, and be their upstream carrier to the internet. ATT in Utah was smart, and inked a deal with Utopia Networks »www.redorbit.com/news/technology···dex.html

Even though ATT is not their ISP, they still provide transit, which sill turns a very nice profit as a carrier. I'm sure Verizon (tier 1 provider) Qwest, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, all have backbones that could easily provide upstream to the internet.