Re: Devils advocate (from the right side of the pond)
Are you confusing the Universal Service Fund which has been around for years and which subsidises voice services, every the Connect Broadband initiatives, an Obama initiative that gives money to Telcos to provide broadband?
You are right that Big Telco collected money from consumers and spent it very efficiently creating voice services. Then it collected money from the taxpayer and spent it very inefficiently on broadband. It kept quite a bit along the way for itself.
But both funds are a drop in the ocean compared to the $1 trillion spent on internet infrastructure privately. Do you think the public owns this private infrastructure? Maybe you don't, but I see this argument being used to justify government control, as if the taxpayer paid for everything. Perhaps you can clarify.