Many U.S. rural communities' hopes for broadband Internet access remain unrealized, with providers yet to deliver on their promises. New York gave rural providers $500 million in state subsidies plus hundreds of millions in federal subsidies to remedy this oversight, while a merger settlement forced cable operator Charter Communications to add 145,000 Internet connections in New York in return for permission to buy Time Warner Cable. Failure to meet such goals stems from a hodgepodge of conflicting government programs, inaccurate maps and weak enforcement.

Read more on Wall Street Journal.