@zkat the actual cables and satellites connecting us, which mostly belong to private carriers.
@zkat an illustrative example connecting the dots of how this plays out is cloud storage:
it costs practically nothing to store stuff in the cloud. The thing that costs so much is the transfer. that cost is set by carriers and ISPs and externalised by cloud providers to their customers, or more likely, to their customers' customers.
@meena what's public infrastructure if not a co-op owned by its consumers, in the end