The real challenge is recreating the conduits and rights of way that the telephone companies have spent the last 100 years establishing. ATT's largest, most valuable asset is not the phone switches/networking gear or the copper in the ground or even the fiber they've laid over the last 20 years. It's the rights of way they control. Google's big battle with the incumbent phone companies is for access to right's of way and telephone poles. ATT is fighting tooth and nail to deny them access. Apple/Google would be better off purchasing a large cable company so you have a large network in place immediately rather than having to build one from scratch
Joe
