Comcast goes to each City Council and demands a 10 or 15 year monopoly before laying down fiber optics. Often, someone else is simultaneously burying some anyway. The suspicion sometimes is that a councilmember has been paid off, or at least swayed by restaurant meals with a friendly lobbyist. Because of the word Comcast repeating, I'm getting a green bar at the bottom of this page advertising a Comcast $99 deal for phone, TV, and internet.
Bush staffer testifies at Comcast hearings. http://www.blazersedge.com/2010/2/25/1326288/former-bush-senior-staffer-on
I don't have firsthand knowledge, but I assume they, or a predecessor company, did invest in infrastructure - laying/stringing cables around Portland. barfo
