[willglynn]

Cook County MN is a little over 3000 square miles, half of which is water, and has a population a little over 5000 people. I own a patch of forest there. It has gigabit fiber service.

The local power company is a co-op because none of the usual power companies wanted to serve the area. About twenty years ago the co-op decided that this whole "internet" thing is probably not a fad, and they started pulling fiber everywhere through their existing utility corridors whenever they had to touch something. It was a good idea. It is _intensely_ rural, yet high speed internet access is now ubiquitous.