In Ireland in the early noughties there was an initiative to roll out universal rural broadband (previously, apart from very small WISP operators, affordable br

In Ireland in the early noughties there was an initiative to roll out universal rural broadband (previously, apart from very small WISP operators, affordable broadband (by noughties standards) was only really available if you were within ADSL-range of a telephone exchange). In practice this ended up with the state spending huge amounts of money subsidising point-to-point WISPs, terrestrial cellular solutions, and, where unavoidable, satellite. Of course none of this was remotely good enough long-term, and the _current_ strategy is to just roll out fibre everywhere. The US (or at least this particular programme) is wise to start with fibre; you'll only end up there anyway. Money spent on gap-filling half-measures like terrestrial or satellite cellular is money wasted.