The US is very big and has very sparsely populated areas, to the point where it would take some time to recoup the cost of the fiber and labor to run it at mark

The US is very big and has very sparsely populated areas, to the point where it would take some time to recoup the cost of the fiber and labor to run it at market rates. Without subsidy, the large telecom companies would rather just not allocate capital to it and issue a stock dividend or something.