Both the cable companies' wholesale service and the phone companies' services are priced far above actual cost. They contain excessive markups that result in a margin squeeze for an Internet service provider acquiring or buying those services.
I'll give you an example. In the late 1990s, ISPs complained to the Competition Bureau about the phone companies' pricing in the retail market for Internet services. They pointed out to the Competition Bureau in a formal six-citizens complaint that the phone companies were pricing their retail Internet services below the price of the wholesale offer that was being made available to Internet service providers.
The Competition Bureau made a factual finding that the phone companies were indeed pricing below cost, but they nonetheless allowed the phone companies to continue pricing in the retail market in the way that they had been.