[trappist]

This was a subsidy paid to participating providers in high-cost areas to support the discount. Charter, a participating provider, said it lost customers when the discount ended. That is not the same as saying those customers lost access to the internet.

[fragmede]

With the unregulated monopoly that ISPs have, yes it is.

[trappist]

I can't even count the number of ISPs I can choose from, because my city, county and state have no "franchise agreements" i.e. licensing programs i.e. monopoly grants for ISPs. Cable, DSL, fiber... I have multiple choices for each. A few years back I lived in a very rural area and the situation was less enviable but qualitatively similar: At least one national rural broadband provider, and at least half a dozen smaller local providers, had microwave antennas on the local (private, as it happens) water tower.

Regulation isn't needed to prevent or break up monopolies in this space, it just needs to stop actively creating and protecting them.