Assuming your talking about the US with your question (since the article is), than in the US it really is _that_ expensive.
The main reason it's "easy" in France (and UK, and other places) is that the big name's network are required by law to let you use the end point. That exists in the US on the phone lines (legacy telephone regulations). But not on anything else (no cable or fiber).
So unless you want to pour all of your time and energy into offering flaky, slow, unreliable internet over 100-year-old copper lines, with speeds below 6mb and minor outages daily, your out of luck re-using any lines in the US.
That difference alone suddenly makes it not remotely easy or cheap.
To deploy internet at a reasonable price, you have to start an entire fiber construction company, and local political lobbying firm, simultaneously, just to get a single customer.
We're talking a barrier to entry of at least 1 to 2 million dollars, to wire a neighborhood, just to get your first customer signed up. Customers who've been conditioned to pay no more than $80/month for internet access.
That cost is actually not expensive compared to typical municipal projects. But it's way more than you'll ever get funding for, to chase, unless you are already extremely wealthy from some other business / family history / etc.
Venture firms would rather fund one thousand new Instagrams than pour money into anything remotely resembling a utility business.
The main way around that cost barrier is to deploy "bad" technology, like wireless. That can be done on a shoestring budget. It works really well in places where there is zero density (rural, exurbs). But it's not the future, it's legacy deployment, with legacy problems and legacy speeds. The nicest microwave radios you can buy only barely match the speeds and reliability of the cheapest fiber deployment.
So, if your in any sort of reasonably-sized city, you'd be stupid to not roll out fiber from the start. And to do that, your looking at millions of dollars of cost.
No one will ever fund that. (I've tried -- countless times). Typically, only selfie-sharing iPhone apps can generate investment like that.
This is why most people in the US are pushing for "common carrier". Because no one here believes a honest business will ever deploy a modern network on any large scale, so the best we can hope for is an upgrade from 100-year-old phone lines, to 40-year-old cable lines.