&gt; It&#x27;s very possible that it&#x27;s not possible to deploy fiber profitably.<p>So, I have an honest question about this: why is fiber so much more expensive than copper? Is it just that the boxes the ends are bigger and more expensive? I&#x27;ve always heard that digging up land and running wires is nasty, but if that&#x27;s the case, how were phone lines ever profitable without costing $100 a month?<p>&gt; I think one great compromise is providing LTE coverage without tyrannical data caps. There is no reason to data cap traffic during non-peak periods. And you don&#x27;t need to tether a phone, there are wifi routers that work on LTE.<p>I think that I&#x27;d like to make a modification there - I can agree on capping _bandwidth_ during peak periods. _Total transfer quantity_ should never be capped ever. Unless a significant portion of the cost of an internet connection is caused by a difference in expenses running the hardware at 75% utilization instead of 50% utilization, which I kind of doubt is the case. I also don&#x27;t know if we&#x27;d ever get it; the wireless providers love claiming that they&#x27;re out of capacity and can&#x27;t even support bigger pictures on imgur, much less people shoving Windows Update through their networks.<p>That said, yes, an uncapped LTE modem with wifi router and some quality-of-service guarantees would be an excellent compromise.