So this is an interesting question. I'm going to assume you mean free as in beer (as opposed to free from undue influence or political control).

I work as a Network Engineer for a local electric utility. My focus is high speed WAN networking (10 Gbps to 400 Gbps interfaces). I can tell you that this type of communication infrastructure is EXPENSIVE. We use optical switches in the “core” of our core network. Each one is about a million dollars (each pair of chassis at a location supports about 4.4 Tbps if so equipped… we’re currently running about 1.2 Tbps but will grow!). Then there’s the fiber.. That can be several hundred thousand per mile to string, pole mounted (even more if underground). Then there is all the supporting infrastructure… 2-post racks (a few hundred dollars each), power (it should be DC with lots of battery backup), the room for the equipment with AC, security, monitoring, etc. The pole mounted fiber requires a lot of equipment (horseshoes to provide slack and fiber storage, splice cases, etc.). And there is almost always a set of in-ground vaults (such as those made by Old Castle). And you need trained personnel to install, manage, operate, maintain, and optimize the network. This means very specialized tools, servers to support network management systems, trucks with lifts, splicing trailers, testing equipment, and more. And getting permits is expensive and time consuming. It can take a year to place a 4-inch conduit under a railroad track. Crossing freeways or rivers is a nightmare. We have whole departments dedicated to getting permits. The surveys (Is there enough room on the pole? Is the pole sound enough for the extra weight. Who owns the pole?) and documentation (we use ArcGIS… very complex GIS program) are on going expenses.

So someone has to pay for this. Supporting lots of customers means each customer’s cost is relatively low (I happen to have fiber Internet… I pay $65.00 per month for 1 Gbps up and down, no caps... I consider that cheap).

Having said that, I’d like to share my Internet. I believe in community based Internet Services… using my WiFi or unlicensed spectrum. I think communities should encourage and build these networks. But they will never be as resilient as a well funded private endeavor.

We should have universal Internet access. Fiber is being rolled out at a faster rate every year. I would love to see municipal owned fiber access (even though my CenturyLink fiber is cheap and in three years has NEVER had an outage… through snow, ice, wind, storms, and fire… amazing). But even community owned fiber is going to cost.

I also have high hopes for Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and OneWeb… While Starlink is expensive (I have a farm on which I have Starlink service), it will offer Gigabit speeds, hopefully at the same $110.00 per month it currently charges. Once other constellations are in place, competition kicks in. Prices go down.

But I’m not sure a reliable, fast, and widely available Internet will ever be free.

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