...and just how is the average working UK household supposed to stop companies doing this.
It's up to Government to do that, but we all know how much the UK government fails to do what they say they will and how much money they wastes every year.
There was a Channel 4 dispatches program about it the other week.

Well well well the good old UK or Treasure Island as it is known to the vast majority of corporations. I bet once you have laid your own cables the ISP's would be all too happy to provide there usual overpriced subscription service, after all you have done half the work for them. We seem to pay more for nearly everything compared to other countries with a similar GDP and Global standing. Many of our essential economically inelastic products (Gas, Water, Elec, Telecoms and food) are provided by foreign owned companies who have no National interest, furthermore their primary goal as with all companies is maximising profit. It's about time we all woke up to what's going on, allowing corporations and in particular foreign corporations to dictate prices in so called competitive markets (oligopolies) which in reality seem to be not much different than monopolies, instead of 1 dictating the price you have 4 or 5 large companies which decide the price between them! and make exorbitant profits at our expense, while investing the bare minimum back into the UK! while we sit on our arses moaning that everything has gone up in price and the service has got worse. Lets not forget that many of these companies have been caught price fixing on numerous occasions and have proved time and time again that they cannot be trusted in charge of essential services. People had to die in train disasters before proper action was taken to rectify years of infrastructure under investment and neglect. Is there really no link to the prevalence of MRSA and other infections in our Hospitals and the fact that this has occurred in the era of contact cleaning? I know some of this has stretched the topic slightly but as long as we are at the whim of private companies people will suffer for their profit.....

Digging a fiber is not that difficult, but how they get their services on the fiber: Internet connection, VoIP, IP-addresses, services?

If you have 30 households on fiber, you will need at least a 100 Mbps Internet link. Getting a 100 Mbps Internet link in a remote area is quite expensive ...

Isn't this a damning reflection on Ofcom, and their total lack of regulation in this sector?