For what it's worth, the ISPs could probably find a way to offer DSL-style metering on 5G networks in places they're not willing to enhance DSL (or lay fiber). If there's less local traffic on the licensed bands, then it should not really cost any more. The fact is, most Canadian home broadband connections are slower than most metropolitan LTE connections in both latency and throughput.
In my personal opinion, reliance on carrier ISPs is the problem. It is not supremely difficult or expensive to set up a line-of-sight radio network; and when ISP service personnel have to come from the nearest city, it could ultimately be much more reliable. If the government is subsidizing telcos to do the work of expanding to rural or remote areas, then they should make that subsidy available to individuals instead/as well, so they can find the way that will get them the most broadband.
The problems are rather the data caps for mobile networks at least in Germany: Nearly every DSL or similar broadband connection comes without data caps and when the Deutsche Telekom tried to introduce data caps a few years ago, there was a large outcry and threats to go to another provider. The Deutsche Telekom soon caved in. On the other hand for mobile connections people tolerate these data caps - and complain about them: I often tell people that they should start a temporal synchronized action to terminate their mobile contract - and tell the provider that they do it because of the data caps - you would not believe how fast these data caps would disappear.
>> ... large outcry and threats to go to another provider.
Not an option in rural canada. There aren't any second providers. Even where two may exist for cellular coverage, only one will likely provide reasonable signal in a particular rural location. As for cable/DSL, there is no competition whatsoever. The only real option for protest is through government ombudsmen. hence my point about 5G being used in debates over the provision of broadband services.
Yes, in the German system Internet over the phone lines has to be open to other providers, so for ADSL there always is competition and thus it's hard for a single provider to worsen conditions for ADSL customers (also takes away competition as incentive to physically improve the infrastructure though).
My experience in Canada: both Cable/DSL and LTE/mobile networks have data caps; but the former has caps in the ~120-300GB range, whereas the latter has caps in the 6-12 GB range.
In my personal opinion, reliance on carrier ISPs is the problem. It is not supremely difficult or expensive to set up a line-of-sight radio network; and when ISP service personnel have to come from the nearest city, it could ultimately be much more reliable. If the government is subsidizing telcos to do the work of expanding to rural or remote areas, then they should make that subsidy available to individuals instead/as well, so they can find the way that will get them the most broadband.