The company in the article seems to poo-poo a local WISP, but Wireless ISPs will continue to be the chief deliverers of last-mile broadband to rural areas for a long time. Nobody is willing to foot the bill for a huge capital buildout. It just doesn&#x27;t make financial sense to spend millions to deliver internet to a community with a 50 year ROI.<p>Disclaimer: I currently work for a WISP and have been involved with microwave wireless internet for the better part of the last 20 years.<p>No, it&#x27;s not gigabit fiber, but in reality, every person in America doesn&#x27;t need gigabit fiber right now.<p>Many WISP reliability concerns have far less to do with the weather than they do the operators of the ISP. Many are inexperienced in reliable network design, or have budgets stretched so thin they cannot afford quality equipment. Most pay far more for the internet access they provide to customers than the big boys.<p>I&#x27;m in a fairly rural county with a couple of mid-sized towns and cities (largest city has a population of about 100,000). Wired internet is available in most population centers, but dial-up and satellite is still all that is available for huge swaths of the county.<p>I know of a particular neighborhood with new houses (Built during the boom around 2005) that the local cable company had hardline right out in front of the neighborhood. There were about 750 houses, most 2000+sq ft. For reasons unknown to me, the neighborhood had a high percentage of government-assisted families living in it. The cable company refused to run lines into the neighborhood for almost 10 years.