Sufficient access to and utilization of broadband is an ongoing concern for rural economic development. Using a rural region in Northern New York (USA), we consider the investment and operational costs of a broadband cooperative and determine service prices for which it is financially viable. Service prices need to increase 75%–131%, depending on grant restrictions, relative to existing market prices for a new broadband cooperative to become financially feasible. Put differently, the cooperative would not cash flow at market prices unless there was at least 14 potential subscribers per mile at a 62% take rate. For a cooperative, the grant restriction that providers offer a minimum level of speed at a maximum price results in a high level of subsidization by high-speed to low-speed members to support the business. Given grant funding and member equity investments, financial infeasibility has little to do with construction costs, than with annual operational and maintenance costs required to sustain the system long term. More reasonable feasibility scenarios occur for existing utility cooperatives expanding services into broadband, particularly areas with a high proportion of high-speed, year-round users and strong take rates. Consideration of public benefits of broadband arguably needs to be added to the equation, particularly surrounding access to healthcare and educational purposes, and as a prerequisite to supporting taxpayer-funded public-private partnerships to expand broadband services. Policy levers to eliminate or subsidize property taxes and pole rental costs reduce cash flow prices considerably; however, feasibility is highly sensitive to assumed take rates.

充分获得和利用宽带是农村经济发展的持续关注。我们使用纽约州北部的一个农村地区（美国），考虑宽带合作社的投资和运营成本，并确定其在财务上可行的服务价格。要使新的宽带合作社在财务上可行，服务价格需要相对于现有市场价格提高75％– 131％，具体取决于拨款限制。换句话说，合作社将不会以市场价格现金流，除非每英里至少有14个潜在订户（采用率达到62％）。对于合作社而言，提供方以最高价格提供最低速度级别的授予限制会导致高速向低速成员提供高水平的补贴以支持业务。有了赠款资金和成员股权投资，财务上的不可行性与建筑成本几乎没有关系，而与维持该系统长期所需的年度运营和维护成本无关。现有公用事业合作社将服务扩展到宽带的情况出现了更为合理的可行性方案，尤其是那些高速，全年使用率高且普及率高的地区。可以认为，宽带的公共利益考虑必须添加到等式中，尤其是在获得医疗和教育目的方面，并且是支持由纳税人资助的公私合作伙伴关系以扩展宽带服务的前提。消除或补贴财产税和电线杆租金的政策手段大大降低了现金流量价格；然而，