I live in Cheltenham, UK (a city of approximately 100,000) and my 5 year old flat block has over 150 units in it; but due to anti-competitive ISP consolidation (and very bad business decisions), companies haven't invested in modern internet infrastructure. I've seen my local exchange. It is a barely manageable mess of copper cables and dangling punch down blocks which isn't due an to upgrade to support ADSL2 for more than a year.
The fastest internet connection I can purchase is a mere 2.2mbps downstream/100 kbps upstream; I had faster internet access 20 years ago when I lived in Ottawa, Canada. Screw the villagers, put the money were the population is.