Where my dad lives, there is no cell phone coverage at all. He does have a phone line though. Where my mom lives, they only got a cell phone tower maybe like 3 years ago. But they have had phone lines for a long time. Personally, I would rather see them build cell phone towers than phone lines.
But, if we are subsidizing phone lines, then all endpoints where a phone will be connected should be required to have an open public wifi access point if they are getting DSL or a cable modem. That way, the rest of us benefit more by having free wifi when we are out in the middle of nowhere.