Yeah, grants don't really seem to work here; my point was more that if you thought they were for innovation, that was way off-base. The grants can be helpful for upstarts, but not when the criteria exclude upstarts.
If the goal is universal service, it really needs to be mandatory, not voluntary, even with incentives (especially poorly administered incentives). But mandatory service is usually connected with a granted monopoly, which isn't really what we want either.
On the other hand, if it takes long enough to get everyone wired, wireless options will become competitive. Between LEO internet services (StarLink, maybe OneWeb and friends) and terrestrial 5G-NR, I think it's quite likely that few places without current wired broadband will ever get it.
If the goal is universal service, it really needs to be mandatory, not voluntary, even with incentives (especially poorly administered incentives). But mandatory service is usually connected with a granted monopoly, which isn't really what we want either.
On the other hand, if it takes long enough to get everyone wired, wireless options will become competitive. Between LEO internet services (StarLink, maybe OneWeb and friends) and terrestrial 5G-NR, I think it's quite likely that few places without current wired broadband will ever get it.