https://archive.ph/J8xh6 https://archive.ph/J8xh6 subtitle: "Officials doling out billions of dollars for broadband in rural America are struggling to decide w

https://archive.ph/J8xh6 https://archive.ph/J8xh6 subtitle: "Officials doling out billions of dollars for broadband in rural America are struggling to decide when a new hookup costs too much" 'Nebraska’s Winnebago Tribe has long been stuck with sluggish internet service. The federal government plans to fix that by crisscrossing the reservation with fiber-optic cable—at an average cost of $53,000 for each household and workplace connected. That amount exceeds the assessed value of some of the homes getting hookups, property records show. While most connections will cost far less, the expense to reach some remote communities has triggered concerns over the ultimate price tag for ensuring every rural home, business, school and workplace in America has the same internet that city dwellers enjoy. “The problem is, money is not infinite,” said Blair Levin, a senior communications policy official in the Clinton and Obama administrations who is now an equity research analyst. “If you’re spending $50,000 to connect a very remote location, you have to ask yourself, would we be better off spending that same amount of money to connect [more] families?”'