[notquiteright]

It’s not that easy. The federal government is in fact spending over $100 billion in the next decade laying fiber (and that’s only partial subsidies, so the total investment will be even higher) and it still won’t be enough to get fiber everywhere.

[AtlasBarfed]

Based on what happened last time:

- the telcos pocketed the money and did very very little actual deployment, and the FCC did nothing

- lobbied the FCC to deny Starlink funds when Starlink actually delivered a usable rural service and got them to declare it "not broadband"

At least the FCC hasn't been completely useless in mobile broadband. I'm sure if 5G starts approaching usable competition with Cable/Telcos, the FCC will kill it for them.

[ufocia]

Not sure why the taxpayers are footing the bill.

[notquiteright]

Because it’s not profitable to build fiber out to many places.