[chc]

I think offering a sweet Internet connection to the whole neighborhood would be the "what you can do for them." Makes it more attractive for people to live there — and as a bonus, if people are paying their broadband fees to you and you live locally, it keeps in the money in the local economy, which most governments like.

[wmf]

Providing service to a neighborhood is considered "redlining" because it discriminates against all the neighborhoods that you don't serve. Thus the local government will probably require that you serve the entire city/county or nothing.

[tomjen3]

And as a result nobody gets good internet.

Dammit.

[scrod]

Organize a cooperative with your neighbors to purchase the capital equipment and sustain the costs to operate it. The initial "risk" will be shared and the members will derive a superior benefit by making profit and advertising costs (however minimal) unnecessary, and by allowing anyone willing and competent in the neighborhood to carry out tech support and installations.