For once I get to make my comment on the day it is due (good job, Brian - keep it up) ....... {I heard that when you start talking to yourself you should get worried..... how about when you start sending email to yourself?}
HAHAHAHA!
Anyway on a more serious note, some years ago I had a v. interesting dialog on this issue of submarine infrastructure. The people I was talking to (don't remember exactly who) {is loss of memory a sign of age, senility, insanity or all 3 together} hehehe.....
---as I was saying, the people I was talking to mentioned that the perfect model has existed for the longest time in the oil & gas pipelines in different parts of Europe. These cross multiple jurisdictions, are critical to the livelihoods and economies of all the stakeholders, support the existence and stability of a wide spectrum of sectors, and at the end of day provide something that an individual or family pays for.
Taking all of the above into consideration - these projects are deliberately designed not to make a profit. (In fact it was hinted that some of them are designed to make a loss - pssst don't say anything to the banks - snicker, snicker, hee, hee)
So at the end of the day you have a consortium<ouch> or group of parties that come together to form an SPV <yay> which then raises the funds required and builds the damn thing - so that all the various "downstream" parties can make their money, needless to say this helps the circulation of currency, etc, etc, etc...
So, my take is that OpenAccess - SPV - build at cost - don't aim for profit - facilitate growth elsewhere is the way to go....
I'll stop now because if I don't I may start writing some of the things I want to say to myself in a separate email ;-)
Brian