It's rather simple. It's true of most industry in this country. The large telecom companies won't push broadband into areas they can't make at least 30% profit from. It took government intervention to get rural electrification in the 1930s. And since most people who have access to broadband only can get it from one provider, the issue of lack of competition is huge. Even where there is competition, prices seem set with 5mb/s going for roughly $50/month. Ever since the government relinquished control of the Internet back in the early 90s, they have really stayed away from regulating it. As a result, we have one of the lowest broadband penetration, the lowest broadband bandwidth and the highest costs of any industrialized country. Leaving it to totally the private sector has not gotten us very far. If we want to be better than 20th, it's going to take government intervention.