Should users finance fiber-to-the-home?

If we're paying for broadband deployment with federal taxes anyway, should we be able to buy our own fiber connections? Brigham City (UT) is poised to test out a rare and experimental model for broadband economics: Having end users finance the cost of connecting their homes with fiber. "I'm not aware of other projects like this," said Paul Larsen, Brigham's economic development director. Under the plan approved by the city council in November - some of the particulars of which were dictated by nuances in the bonding process funding the project - fiber would be connected to end users willing to pay a one-time fee of $3000 for the connection (independent of any subscription fees paid to service providers on the network), which they could pay upfront or in $25 monthly payments over 20 years, backed by a city bond.