It costs such companies to send technicians out of the way to rural areas. We have had this issue for years with Telstra (previously Telecom.) They wait until they have a few requests to do technical work in the area before they send someone. Otherwise the techs waste a lot of time on travel to both reach and find the location, etc. I'm talking about rural Victoria, Australia. But I heard same issue was happening all over Australia. ie: what a tech could do within an hour in the city, would take them perhaps an entire day in rural areas due to both the travel & locating of equipment concerned.

Similar to the costs of upgrading the phone & internet cables. Less people to cater for in rural areas, so very high costs for less income. Less demand and cost efficiency gives it a very very low priority for Telstra.

I personally 'detest' Telstra. And yes I have lots of stories I could tell of their cheating ways. Telstra are arrogant & aggressive in various ways. (Dare I say, I worked for them twice lol.)