I just came back from MATSS 2023 and there's definitely a lot of consultant work being built around getting Enhanced A-CAM or BEAD funding. I work for a rural I

I just came back from MATSS 2023 and there's definitely a lot of consultant work being built around getting Enhanced A-CAM or BEAD funding. I work for a rural ISP/telco and I can tell you we don't have any expectation of building out regulated networks without some kind of funding to help. On the flip side that many people don't get exposed to, there are cybersecurity requirements before funding can be applied, so this may help old telcos modernize their networks. Realistically there's no market to spend upgrade money in any of our service areas. Comcast may have 20k subscribers in a single suburb but we don't have that many subscribers in our entire service area, so the ROI would be many years before we break even. The thing most people forget is that small rural ISPs are regulated with the same laws the corporate behemoths are and it's difficult to reach parity so the small guys can get help while the big guys who don't need it can't get it. It's generally service area by service area and less about which company requests assistance to built out/upgrade that area.