Remember, this rulemaking is for 1.1 million locations with the "worst"
return on investment. The end of the tail of the long tail. Rural and
tribal locations which aren't profitable to provide higher speed
broadband.
These locations have very low customer density, and difficult to serve.
After the Sandwich Isles Communications scandal, gold-plated proposals
will be viewed with skepticism. While a proposal may have a lower total
cost of ownership over decades, the business case is the cheapest for
the first 10 years of subsidies. [massive over-simplification]
Historically, these projects have lack of timely completion (abandoned,
incomplete), and bad (overly optimistic?) budgeting.
