U.S. doesn't have a "broadband subscription" problem. It has an infrastructure problem.

Neighborhood broadband data makes it clear: We need an agenda to fight digital poverty: How would you feel if half of the homes your neighborhood didn’t have electricity? Or if a quarter didn’t have running water? It’s hard to imagine, mostly because the United States benefits from near-universal access to electricity and water.  That’s not the story for another crucial utility: broadband, or high-speed internet service. Digital platforms have transformed most parts of daily life, from how we talk to one another, to how we consume media, to how we travel. But those platforms are only meaningful if you can access them via broadband. In 2018, more than 18 million American households lived without a broadband subscription. This means that today’s digital economy is out of reach for far too many people.

A big part of this problem is continuing to see America's advanced telecom infrastructure deficiencies not as an infrastructure issue but rather a "broadband subscription" problem. As long as that term is used, it's going to be difficult to conceive of it as a "crucial utility" as described here.

It's a critical distinction and words matter. The term "broadband subscription" derives from the legacy incumbent telephone and cable companies that sold "broadband subscriptions" as a optional add on service and NOT as a utility. Moreover, these companies fight hard against classifying Internet service as a telecommunications utility regulated under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, dubbed in the media as the battle over "net neutrality." Rather, they preferred it remain an optional subscription-based "information service" regulated under Title I of the statute and delivered through their vertically integrated proprietary premise connections and without the Title II requirement they honor all reasonable requests for service.