Who has the least expensive long distance rates?

Due to much lower attenuation and interference, optical fiber has large advantages over existing copper wire in long-distance and high-demand applications. However, infrastructure development within cities was relatively difficult and time-consuming, and fiber-optic systems were complex and expensive to install and operate. Due to these difficulties, fiber-optic communication systems were primarily been installed in long-distance applications, where they can be used to their full transmission capacity, offsetting the increased cost. Since the year 2000 have the prices for fiber-optic communications dropped considerably. The price for rolling out fiber to the home has now (2006) become more cost-effective than that of rolling out a copper based network. Prices have dropped to $850 per subscriber in the US and lower in countries like The Netherlands, where digging costs are low.