It’s confusing that people are OK with paying billions of tax dollars to land-based telecoms corporations who fail to provide even half-decent internet service, and whose services are not "scalable", but people balk at Starlink. The "rural niche" obviously doesn't matter to anyone except those of us who are in it, so why give CenturyLink a billion tax dollars to install undersized fiber optic lines, knowing that most people can't afford their overpriced, underperforming land-based service, and knowing that a billion dollars only provides fast internet service to a tiny portion of their monopolized service area?
Each rural topography is different. Northern Missouri has nearly total broadband coverage, due to its flat ground and relatively simple terrain. 5G towers would work for most locations there. Northern Arkansas has nearly total coverage due to their electric cooperatives' willingness to install fiber optic cables along the power poles that are already serving every remote homestead, spanning hill and holler.
Southern Missouri has nearly zero highspeed coverage, though not according to the FCC. CenturyLink was paid over a billion tax dollars to install a ragtag system of undersized cables buried in the ground. A system that is neither adequate nor scalable. And they charge a hefty fee for internet access to those who are fortunate enough to live near one of their undersized cables. My family is not fortunate enough. We're what's known as a "last mile" customer, in corporatespeak. You'll spend ten million tax dollars just to run one cable to my house, and it will be an undersized cable whose service is both underperforming and overpriced, from a customer's perspective.
We finally installed our Starlink a couple months ago, after paying the deposit and then buying the equipment. The service pays for itself; Hughes satellite internet was $60 per month, and Dish satellite television was $75 per month. We canceled both of those when we got the $120 per month Starlink hooked up. My son can finally play his video games at home! After years of being unable to provide my child with the one thing he truly wanted, the one thing that was beyond our abilities to provide for him, the one thing that catches our household up with more privileged households in more prosperous, flatter terrain.
As much as Elon Musk is a vile human. As much as people look down their noses at rural communities. As much as you want to believe there's a better, more affordable option than Starlink, you may be wrong.