Fiber to farm: Should farmers pay more?

The residents of Sibley County in rural central Minnesota have launched themselves into a conversation, not just about whether to build a fiber optic network that would give them world-class Internet access but about how to share the cost burden between town and farm.

Here are the questions: Should the county of 15,000 (18,000 if you add the neighboring town of Fairfax) create a project to serve eight small towns with Internet speed far greater than what is available now through phone and cable companies? Assume it would borrow about $34 million and have an expected breakeven in five years. Or should it build a project offering the same service to the same towns plus all the farms in the county, borrowing $61 million, finding another $2 million in equity and breaking even in seven years? And -- here's the really interesting part for residents to tussle with -- if they lay fiber to all the farms, should farmers pay more?