My 1.4 Mb/s down 0.5 Mb/s DSL service from Bell has not changed in over a decade. "Rural" here just means being more than 5 kilometers from a telephone switching office and no cable access. I am in southern Ontario, a 15-minute drive north of highway 401 and about 20 minutes from a city with a population of over 125,000.  Given that the price of Internet has been increasing year after year and no investment is being made in my service, such increases must be subsidizing others or adding to profit margins. Governments expect us to pay taxes and receive services via Internet. Services like CBC radio on the Internet include video commercials that overload my connection. To me, it is therefore appropriate for governments to encourage more investment in rural Internet access, where "rural" refers to a fairly short distance from the densest urban centers.