said by bUU:I live in the Commonwealth. Where do you live?
And just because people are "(older)" and "rural" doesn't mean that they don't have their own, valid perspective regarding the relative value of spending public funds on expanding broadband availability, equally worthy of respect as your own.
The vast majority of the elderly in rural areas don't even know what a "gigabyte" is. They don't understand the business, health, and economic potential ubiquitous broadband can have for their community. This situation is extremely similar to what happened when both electricity and phone lines were first being drawn across the country.
On the other hand, most younger rural residents are quite well-versed with modern computer technology and jargon, and are quite eager (in some cases desperate) for access to high-speed broadband at affordable prices.
Furthermore, demand for broadband is in many cases equivalent to the chicken and egg problem. Until people have access to high-speed internet services and make use of them, and until word-of-mouth then spreads about the utility of such services, the demand will always be lacking.
Australia is the perfect example of this. 70% of internet users there don't even use Youtube. Why? Because the incumbents have utterly crippled the networks there, enforcing paltry caps and *hugely excessive* overcharges.