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Generally a fan of the work from R Street, and I feel like it's important to qualify what this scorecard means. It weighs three main areas: right-of-way access, franchise agreements, and construction permitting. https://twitter.com/RSI/status/1359516438034268165
Utah does a good job at granting access to public right of way and UDOT has been doing the work to make sure that conduit and/or fiber is laid along/under state roads when they engage in projects. This is definitely helpful.
BUT, let's keep in mind that incumbent operators are a MAJOR factor in right-of-way costs. For pole attachments, they have often cluttered them up so well that new entrants simply cannot attach without big costs potentially including brand new poles.
Franchise agreements are one where I scratch my head. You'd have to be certifiable to start a cable-like video product today. They are notorious for barely breaking even and their main purpose is only customer stickiness. It's an expensive and complicated hassle.
There's a reason Google left the cable TV market: it makes no sense. Over-the-top solutions are good enough for most people. Several offer linear programming packages (YouTube TV, Sling, etc). Why would you blow a lot of your capex on something that won't make money?
Utah earns its A- rating based on these metrics, but near in mind what's being measured: the ease of deploying a broadband network. It doesn't really measure the quality of our existing broadband, and a lot of that is thanks to 1) UTOPIA and 2) federal dollars to rural ILECs.
