I live in a US town of ~6k people, and currently get 6Mbps on the lowest tier plan available (50 Mbs is readily available, just a bit pricey for personal use).
I don't buy this argument at all, as there are metro areas that will have worse connectivity than some rural areas within the US.
I live in an area with approx. 370,000 people and my only ISP choice is Comcast. Verizon will not provide FioS here or DSL, and the wireless ISP in our area says my neighbor's tree is too large and blocks LoS to their tower.
I don't buy this argument at all, as there are metro areas that will have worse connectivity than some rural areas within the US.
I also wonder what the real reason is.