Comcast et all are scared, or at least worried, despite what they might say to the press and shareholders. When Cable started to include data and also telephone service, it was considered "a natural extension of the service" and was considered a good idea. If/when the telcos start reaching into providing television service, it's suddenly a bad idea to do it. Phuleez. Competition and choice is always good for the consumer. If it's not financially viable for Verizon to do it, management probably would be more reluctant and shareholders screaming bloody murder. Neither is happening.
In some areas, the telco infrastructure is decades old and already in desperate need to be upgrade. Fiber technology will last just as long if not longer then the copper infrastructure has. Cable companies know this, but only extended their network with fiber to the neighborhood, relying on it's existing copper already buried to take it to the front door. Verizon said screw it, we are taking the fiber to the door. Now customers will have the potential for an obscene amount of bandwidth and services that cable companies only wish they could provide.
And Verizon isn't deploying FIOS to affluent neighborhoods. They are deploying it everywhere. Well, in certain cities. But eventually it will be most everywhere. rome wasn't built in a day you know. I had a boring machine parked in my back yard neighborhood last weekend. The average home value in my neighborhood is probably around $100k. Middle class, sure. Affluent neighborhood, yeah right. Most of the neighborhoods around me have crews either working on them now as I type or have already gotten the preliminary conduits ran. This includes neighborhoods with significantly higher property values, lower property values, newer and older. Everyone's getting it. Across town, another set of crews are doing $.5m homes in exclusive neighborhoods as well as WWII tract homes in a less well to do part of town. If the cable companies want to live in their delusional world thinking only the rich are getting their recommended daily allowance of fiber, so be it. It doesn't make it true.
