I know it's all about the bottom line, but this is awful. From the NYT:

Verizon is not alone in its desire to reduce the number of landlines it owns. Big phone and cable companies are reluctant to upgrade and expand their networks in sparsely populated places where there are not enough customers to justify the investment. Instead, they are funneling billions of dollars into projects in cities and suburbs where the prospects for a decent return are higher.

But those projects are unlikely to reach rural areas of Vermont and other states, leaving millions of people in the Internet�s slow lane, just as high-speed access is becoming more of a necessity than a luxury. The United States already lags behind much of the industrialized world in broadband access.

The rest of the article talks about people that have a hard time finding a job without an email address and Internet access. There is a little "glass is half full" spin - wow, rural people still go to meeting halls because they can't IM.

While it's been encouraging that some rural folks are now getting increased access to broadband, it just seems like there is the potential that in some areas of the country, this will never get better.