The Duopoly will never let an independent go without a fight. For over 40 decades it has ensured that few, if any, independent companies exist through lobbied regulations, legislation and even a contract held with the US government. All of these smaller carriers you see are selling shared bandwidth bought through, say AT&T.
Of all the people I would wish raped to pinksock ruin with AIDS and ebola dripping out of their eyes, it's the ISPs.
It's not quite as bad as this yet here in Germany, but we're getting there. Telekom is trying its hardest to both become a monopolist and to fuck around with users as much as possible.