Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Just because something is widely reported does not mean it's true. You can just as easily find reports which details the cost of the network at $220M, which is how much the city bonded for to build it. Furthermore the sources you cite yourself clearly states that of the $330M, $111.5M was a federal grant for the smart grid. Right, but sources say the $111.5M was used to build the fiber network that was a part of bo…
> Yes, but that's the fiber backbone underlying the residential internet service. True, but that still does not mean you can attribute 100% of the federal smart meter grant to the fiber buildout. Even if you chose to ignore all the other investments made into the smart metering infrastructure, fiber routes built to service the electric grid (such as routes to substations) cannot be used for providing Internet service…
"EPB issued $229 million in revenue bonds in 2008. Of this amount, $162 million was used to build the fiber optic network, which is owned by the EPB's Electric Division and is used for both the smart grid and telecommunications services."
"To date, EPB's Fiber Optic Division has borrowed approximately $50 million from the Electric Division to finance the costs of adapting the broadband network to provide telecommunications services to its customers."
For simplicity, let's ignore the fact that a part of these costs should be attributed to the power company, as the fiber network is also used for smart metering.
At a cost of $212M for 83 000 subscribers, this gives us a cost per subscriber of $2554.
If you add $28M to account for the first three years interest and other financing costs, it becomes $240M for 83 000 subscribers, resulting in $2892 per subscriber.
So there. A far cry from $5000 per subscriber.