You could say that about every service in rural areas.

If you tried to go all the way with your argument, only a few urban centres would be left with decent infrastructure. And of course infrastructure needed to support those (parasitic) centres (what with food and the like).

A rather gloomy picture of society, if you asked me.

It would be a return to the Ancient Greek style of city-states which employ or enslave their surrounding rural population to feed the city-dwellers.

>You could say that about every service in rural areas.

Well, I do ask that question about every service in rural areas. There are advantages to living in the countryside - traffic, clean air, cheap housing. If I'm expected to subsidize rural broadband, why aren't rural people expected to subsidize my housing costs?

If cheap, fast broadband is really important to you, why don't you move somewhere it's available?