said by Transmaster:What is need is a government program similar to the Rural Electrification program of the 30's, 40's and early 50's.
The REA is still more or less around in the form of the RUS, and loans and other funding are there for those who want to take it. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of conditions attached to RUS money that run some companies away.
The bigger problem, of course, is companies that simply don't care about rural areas. In general, as jhh noted earlier, areas served by small mom-and-pop or co-op phone companies don't have the issues with poor broadband availability that those served by larger phone companies, and the Baby Bells in particular, do. (Oddly, for the most part, the reverse is true for cable -- most large MSOs have HSI across their footprint except in extremely isolated or rural areas, while quite a few rural mom-and-pop cable companies are still running one-way plant that only goes up to 300 or 350 MHz.)
-SC