There are large chunks of "non-coastal America" where outside of the cities, internet connectivity is still absolute trash. We have the benefit in the UK of being small (land area wise) and densely populated so (relatively) high speed internet coverage hasn't been too difficult to achieve. Though other countries have significantly faster networks than we do
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Anyway - the big difference now is 4g/5g wireless connectivity making it much easier to get good speeds without laying cable, so less densely populated areas can catch up more easily.