I've worked on the regulatory side of some of these rural broadband projects paid through the FCC's Connect America Fund and the way that these smaller operations seem to structure their operations is that they have a phone company that goes hat in hand to the government and asks for money to connect rural areas with phone service using fiber. The fiber is expensed through the regulated phone company so it receives the government grants. Then, the affiliate ISP uses the fiber to offer broadband (in addition to the phone company offering phone service) at something like $75/mo for gigabit fiber and because they're mostly piggybacking off of the phone company's fiber, the ISP revenue is nearly pure profit. The phone company exists mainly as a means to access the government funding and can even operate as a loss leader for the overall operation.
I've worked on the regulatory side of some of these rural broadband projects paid through the FCC's Connect America Fund and the way that these smaller operations seem to structure their operations is that they have a phone company that goes hat in hand to the government and asks for money to connect rural areas with phone service using fiber. The fiber is expensed through the regulated phone company so it receives the government grants. Then, the affiliate ISP uses the fiber to offer broadband (in addition to the phone company offering phone service) at something like $75/mo for gigabit fiber and because they're mostly piggybacking off of the phone company's fiber, the ISP revenue is nearly pure profit. The phone company exists mainly as a means to access the government funding and can even operate as a loss leader for the overall operation.