Comment Re: I never thought I'd say this... (Score 1) 353
I think that a pretty lose use of the of word "subsidy", but the idea is that the providers won't build the infrastructure at all without a carrot up front. The large ISP's believe that those low-density areas aren't sufficiently profitable. I live in Montana and rural areas are ofter served by small local ISP's. The big ISPs come into the smaller towns with wired access, prices and speed that the small guys have a hard time matching, pushing the smaller ISPs out to the less-profitable rural areas, often using wireless. What would help the small ISPs is high-speed fiber to small towns that they could access at a reduced price. Many small towns are supposed to get high-speed fiber for schools and libraries, but I don't believe that small ISP can access this.