I thought about this when I first started reading about municipal broadband, and I think if the local gov was required to wholesale out its' capacity the same way Title II utilities like AT&T have to now, small ISPs would be in a far better situation. AT&T is relatively hostile to the customers of other DSL providers, and I think municipal governments may be less likely to.
Datacenters are also a completely reasonable metaphor, you pay the facility to run most wiring for a cross-connect to an ISP or between cages / floors, but you can provide your own transit or buy transit from any number of providers, all of whom are just other customers.
Datacenters are also a completely reasonable metaphor, you pay the facility to run most wiring for a cross-connect to an ISP or between cages / floors, but you can provide your own transit or buy transit from any number of providers, all of whom are just other customers.