The point is "Where is the investment capital going to come from to expand broadband into areas where the per customer cost is several hundred times higher than in the cities?"  Century Link stock is down nearly 50% over the past year.  Comcast is going to lose around 150 K customers in the 3rd quarter a period where they have historically grown.  Neither can spend that much on this market.

Century Link's Business Model is rapidly evaporating.  Most of their outside plant was put in well before today's internet speeds were planned for.  Meanwhile Comcast is just starting to realize they are really in the internet business with TV destined to be the younger sibling hoping to tag along.  The market value of pure telephone service is around $10 month from numerous VOIP providers or $5 from Magic Link.
    
The likely solution will be inferior radio/satellite based internet.  Unless new technology comes online this means more dropped connections, slower downloads and far slower uploads.