It was created to serve rural customers not serviced by the large power companies.

The repair work has been going slowly, power company officials said, in part because so many rural customers need major repairs.

The company also operated wagon routes to serve rural customers.

But even that was too much money for many potential rural customers to pay.

The first year of the program set the goal of connecting 1200 rural customers to the network.

They also say that rural customers will benefit from competition in urban areas through a nationwide pricing plan.

Nor, she added, did many of her rural customers have any place to buy these products.

As of 2004, nearly 843,000 rural Canadian customers received residential mail delivery services.

The issue was also important to Arizona, since the limitations on satellite providers hurt rural customers.

Indeed, in some cases, these rural customers may even lose money for the phone company.