I don't know about the ISPs in Europe, but in the US they've repeatedly collected massive amounts of tax dollars by promising to use it for broadband construction and then simply pocketed that money while doing nothing. I'd say any broadband construction they want now has already been paid for by the American people. If anything, they owe us billions already.
"Just because we sell people internet connectivity, does not mean they should be allowed to use it without paying again."
"You hate these guys right? How about you make them give us some cash??"
"We shouldn't have to reduce our exorbitant profits to provide the specific service our customers pay for, instead a third party that our service is explicitly designed to connect our customers to should have to pay for it"
^ that's the argument they're making and it's blatantly absurd on its face.
You can't force any company to pay for anything. It all comes from the customer's pocket at the end of the day. We can start however by ensuring a fairer playing field amongst ISPs. They've gotten too huge and too comfortable with mediocrity. it's time to rip these companies apart.
Maybe but it should go to citizen owned infrastructure, not private isps
What about the government using the billions and billions in US tax payer dollars to do that? Internet access is critical infrastructure at this point. Isn’t it the government’s job to provide infrastructure to its citizens?