You're right that the point isn't short-term ROI, they'd fail if that's the case. But that only bolsters my point that they don't have unlimited capital to keep laying down mile after mile of fiber. Especially in this economy, with a significant flight to safety, capital for hugely expensive projects like FIOS has got to be hard to come by, and Verizon is probably just pausing to shore up their position in that regard.
