Spoken like a true conservative.

We had the same issue. Telstra dictated the terms of the industry and was very profit driven.
They would even lock other companies out of certain geographical areas because they owned everything.

Then we got a left-wing government who decided they were sick of that status quo... Bought our infrastructure back... And then decided to build the NBN. - Then we got a conservative government in who changed everything and fucked it up... But it's still leagues better than it used to be... But the base principle remain.

...And that is... No longer does a single company like Telstra own everything from top to bottom, from the telephone exchange to the modem sitting on your desk to the mobile towers... Everyone is now on an equal playing field pretty much.
And we are now seeing lots of small providers pop up which is great.

And we wouldn't have gone through all this bullshit if the previous conservative government didn't sell our telecommunications off in the first place.

Vast countries like Australia, Canada etc' cannot really afford to sit around and expect a company to do this... It is bad business sense so shit will stagnate.
The Government really does need to intervene.

The irony is... I am still on half century old copper.

We rolled out fixed wireless here for the outskirts of the town that happily hits 50Mbps down with unlimited data caps, fantastic technology for rural areas.
There is a small caveat that when it rains, that signal does degrade... But considering this is the driest state on the driest Continent in the world, it's not a big drama I guess.
 

Government needs to intervene, inject some cash and infrastructure... Then let the market handle the rest, it's worked here, so should work there.

Some renewables would have been fine, at more affordable government payouts, or shorter span payouts as they are also reduced in turn with renewable purchasing and installation costs, should have been the plan, which I wouldn't exactly deem a conservative viewpoint. They were way to progressive about it, and should have been more Liberal.

Our Liberals are sick of the status quo too, just not when it comes to anything really important. They focus on the little things and mostly ignore the problems that impact the most. Mary Jane being legalized recently should help bring in some extra money, but what are they going to spend it on is another question. Our Gov has made attempts to break up the big monopolies, but has only made small dents in them at best. When it comes to telecommunications that's one area they don't like to mess with.

They recently gave some money to an organization that is looking to try and work with all the internet co's and get fiber laid over a vast majority rural area in Ontario, but they've had the money for years and are just getting to the point where they are finding out where the existing infrastructure is and who can help them with the installation, so maybe construction could start next year, and is supposed to finish 2021-2022. Much of the wait apparently is because the big co's have held off as long as possible as to helping out with information and deciding how much they want to help install, knowing they are going to probably lose millions of customers when this happens. That is only the first planned phase based on the money they were able to attain from the Gov, which is basically just to strengthen the backbone of the existing system. The full plan says if they can continue to receive Gov funding, that rural homes will start to see fiber around 2030, and the last homes will see it by 2040. Private money and ISP's that aren't part of that program may speed up that time line ever so slightly, but ya, 2040 before some people get anything better than 5.0mbps basically.

Near the odd forward thinking town or the big cities they can get 50mbps dsl, but once that drops to around 4.0mbps over distance they don't do anything. Everyone passed that point is stuck with dial up still unless there's another large enough town nearby with a direct fiber run to it already. That's the only reason we can get 5.0mbps here. Not far passed us everyone has no option but 56k dial up or 2mbps wireless or 20mbps satellite (which is unaffordable, unreliable, low capped, and 10mbps on average). 

Near Niagara Falls there is a company that installed some wireless towers and offers 50mbps, but the while I don't remember the data caps and prices exactly, they were some of the worst I've ever seen in Canada. That's what happens without competition and options though.

It'll be around, but will continue to lose popularity.

Digital also has massive sales.

I just bought Rise of the Tomb Raider for $12.00 and The Evil Within 2 for $15.00 on Xbox.

Rumor: Microsoft's Considering Building a Disc-Less Xbox One for Release in 2019

https://ca.ign.com/articles/2018/11/16/rumor-microsofts-considering-building-a-disc-less-xbox-one-for-release-in-2019

Hmm. A $199 or cheaper XB1SS, with no disc drive by mid 2019, and possibly later in 2019 a revised XB1S for maybe $249? Along with a direct physical game trade in program with no cost to receive a digital code for the digital download. This isn't a dumb move if they keep the XB1S, except it sounds like they are still working on Scarlet and are trying to decide if they should go discless with it. It kinda seems like the XB1SS is more of a trial than anything, to see if people will buy into it, and if so, you just may see Scarlet go completely digital. That or the base Scarlet may be solely digital with the more expensive model having a disc drive. Is the XB1SS actually the lower performance streaming console they have been talking about maybe?

This could be a deal braker for me. I do love deals on digital version but I like to own physical disc as well.