It's definitely not cheap. Some claim it's too prohibitive, some say not, I tend to lean towards to the "it's too much currently" camp, but it's really hard to say without real information.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...r-network.ars/
An interesting article that's somewhat related, for the area to create their own ISP they basically had to enforce mandatory subscription for all residents, and the developer still had to fund the install to recover the cost over
20 years.