[ipnon]

NYC Mesh uses this approach.[0] They have "supernodes" shooting lasers across the city, which you can then receive with a dish on your roof, and these connect to an IXP. Payment is donation based, but their recommended donation is already more affordable than Spectrum (the dominant NYC ISP), and is billed per building, not per router, so becomes extremely cheap if you get your neighbors onboard. Installation is more complicated than plugging a router into a cable TV jack, but community volunteers are available to do installations. It's a remarkable example of the people taking power back into their own hands. On the subject of Spectrum I have nothing good to say.

But it stands to mention, this is in biggest metro in the United States, and an innovative tech hub at that. Rural Americans too often left in the dust in this regard. It is exasperating.

[0] https://www.nycmesh.net/