In farm country, forget broadband. You might not have internet at all

For many people in the rural US -- from stretches of Kansas to vast swaths of Alaska -- it's like living in an undeveloped nation when it comes to internet connectivity. Population density matters because it determines whether an internet company will invest in building out its network or if it will stick to its traditional borders. The problem runs deeper than the willingness of ISPs to move into new areas. When the Federal Communications Commission in 2015 changed the definition of broadband to 25 megabits per second for download speeds, up from 4 Mbps, it found that 55 million Americans, or 17 percent of the population, lacked access to advanced services. The following year, the FCC concluded that percentage of underserved Americans had dropped to 10 percent. The reality is that 80 percent of the 24 million people still without broadband are located in rural parts of the US. And experts say today's figures are almost certainly inaccurate because of faulty maps. "The current [broadband coverage] map is a nightmare," says Christopher Ali, an assistant professor in the University of Virginia's Department of Media Studies