[AntiUSAbah]

For something relevant? Why would they do this? Dark fibers is an easy thing and you need to put power to these remote towers anyway.

[nomel]

You need a cell tower every 20 miles or so, less for a performant one. There's not dark fiber at that density in remote regions (remote is, by definition, lacking infrastructure). There's a better chance of power, and for the cases there's not, solar/battery is fine for a cell tower, especially one designed for lower power remote installations.

[AntiUSAbah]

The initial cost for a dark fibre on a power pool is very low and can give you low latency and high bandwidth.

Starlink antenna needs a lot more energy and has a high montly cost.

That shouldn't be very economically for long.