Do roads make economic sense if we didn't have a federal government to subsidize them? Probably not: Texas derives around 58% [1] of its highway costs from vehicle-related fees (e.g. registration, gas tax, etc.) and the rest is subsidized from unrelated sources.
Then again if we did not have a road system, our economy would be in poor shape, because it is harder to get the store to buy things, and to transport the things around. So from that perspective roads are an economic net positive even if they were 100% subsidized from unrelated businesses.
Gigabit internet is similar to roads. It probably can't/won't be funded 100% by the people who use it. At the same time, it is important infrastructure that opens up new avenues for economic opportunity, and I suspect that any major city that had gigabit as available as roads or electricity would find that the benefits exceed the costs, be they subsidized or otherwise.
It's one thing for cities to subsidize infrastructure with tax dollars. Another for a private company to do it as a tie-in to its online services/advertising business. Still another for that company to berate ISPs while doing it, for not building infrastructure they themselves probably wouldn't without the cross-subsidy or synergy from their other businesses.
Do roads make economic sense if we didn't have a federal government to subsidize them? Probably not: Texas derives around 58% [1] of its highway costs from vehicle-related fees (e.g. registration, gas tax, etc.) and the rest is subsidized from unrelated sources.
Then again if we did not have a road system, our economy would be in poor shape, because it is harder to get the store to buy things, and to transport the things around. So from that perspective roads are an economic net positive even if they were 100% subsidized from unrelated businesses.
Gigabit internet is similar to roads. It probably can't/won't be funded 100% by the people who use it. At the same time, it is important infrastructure that opens up new avenues for economic opportunity, and I suspect that any major city that had gigabit as available as roads or electricity would find that the benefits exceed the costs, be they subsidized or otherwise.
[1] https://www.icloud.com/iw/#numbers/BAKsWA7R5a0YQGg3ptGBpPlvQ...