Issues fixed, be happy
Ping times likely to be erratic to the places you mention, a lot of fibre, a lot of transmission kit and a lot of routers and switches along the way!
Cable operators were given monopolies as part of their licenses no monopoly related activity involved, they now no longer have them. Anyone who wants to build in an ntl area can feel free to go ahead and do this as far as I know. Any takers?
As far as alternatives go, there's ADSL for those who can receive it over a BT line, for those who can't there's satellite. Maybe not the tastiest alternatives but that's the way it is sadly. Cable is a natural monopoly throughout the world, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia.