said by Sammer:Our government spent $800 Billion on "stimulus" and our economy is still stagnant. Just a third of that would have been enough to bring FTTH to the entire country and at least we would have something other than a huge debt. Good luck fighting the government regulations that favor the incumbents if you form a coop or entice an overbuilder.
That is money down the drain. Don't pour more after it.
You don't have to "fight government regulations that favor incumbents", because they don't.
What you do need, is the means to show a profit, which isn't always possible, given that amounts subscribers want to pay - in which case, sorry, you'll have to wait until the cost of deployment and operation comes down some more, or settle for an alternative technology, i.e. wireless.
Sonic and Surewest are demonstrating that they can deploy FTTH in small towns and sell service for $50/month - a tad higher than the tipping point for rural uptake, but within range. It is apparently, quite doable, for those who choose to act.