Profit
As with everything in a capitalist or survivalist society, motivation to participate in group/community projects is primarily driven by the opportunity for profit.
FTA encourages operators to register their infrastructure with FTA in order to derive profit from their operations. Profit can be obtained in three ways: gate fees, network node fees, and bounties.
Gate Fees
Gate fees form a component of the overall jump permit fee associated with using a linked pair of gates. Gate fees are set separately for both the source and destination gates.
When an operator transfers ownership of a gate to FTA ("registers" the gate), they earn the right to set fees that others must pay to use the gate. There are restrictions on how fees can be set or modified to maintain stability of the network (see fee restrictions), but overall the operator has substantial freedom to set fees according their own goals.
Gate fees are intended to recover the materials cost of building a gate. Once the initial costs have been recouped, all gate fees collected for a gate are pure profit for the operator.
Network Node Fees
Network node fees form another component of the overall jump permit fee associated with using a linked pair of gates. Network node fees are set separately for the network nodes powering the source and destination gates.
When a operator maintains a network node to power a gate, continuing to keep it fueled, they earn the right to set fees to use the gate powered by that network node. Similarly to gate fees, there are restrictions on how fees can be set or modified (see fee restrictions), but overall the operator has substantial freedom to set fees according their own goals.
Network node fees are intended to recover the cost of fuel to power a network node and gate, plus a profit margin.
Free Market Competition
Because FTA will accept gates anywhere and from anyone, it enforces a free market model with competition. If a operator builds a gate on a particularly high-trafficked route and is collecting substantial fees from that route, there is incentive for other players or organizations to build their own gate pair for that same route and transfer it to FTA as well. They may then set very low fees for those gates and network nodes in an attempt to draw traffic away from the original gates or to put the original gate "out of business".
Similarly, if the operator of a network node that powers an FTA gate sets outrageous network node fees, there is incentive for other players to destroy that network node and replace it with their own in order to draw more traffic and make profit for themselves.
FTA makes no assumptions or incentives for or against this kind of behaviour, other than penalizing the destruction of FTA infrastructure. It's a free market and the community can compete as they see fit.