I am rural and utterly tired of Comcast and still not having the mid-split. Regardless, it still wouldn’t be fast enough for me. They’re playing games with our township by not acknowledging that a new franchise agreement needs to be written up and/or signed (been going on for like a year). When I drive around the area I’m always looking at the lines running between poles. One day I noticed one of those round fiber splice enclosures on a numbered route about 5 miles from my home. I followed it and lo and behold it feeds the local cell tower. The line keeps coming towards my home to an intersection maybe a half mile away. I’m thinking this is some obscure company that leases out dark fibers to people. How do I find out who owns the lines? If I did find out, and that’s their game, how would one connect to the internet via dark fiber?
In my country, there’s a ‘dial before you dig’ service that tracks not just underground services, but all public works cabling. Not sure how it works for where you are, but maybe look for your equivalent?