[sschueller]

Grants from the government.

Some places also vote to have the city or town connect with Fiber which then puts tax money aside for it.

In many places it is the power companies that run fiber and they are mostly partially or fully state owned. The lagest ISP also has the state as the majority share holder.

[theultdev]

The government doesn't pay for anything.

It's whether you want to pay through it via tax dollars or directly.

[sschueller]

By government I mean the tax payer. The government made the decision to allocate tax payer money for such things.

As it stimulates the economy similar to how laying new train track does.