How, asked one conference attendee, can rural broadband projects be done without waiting for government funding approvals?

"If you wait for government it just doesn't happen," replied Darrin Graham, CEO of Ontario's . "You have to put a plan together and go to government and say 'Here's our plan, and we're going ahead without you' and shame them almost into saying 'Yes, we'll be part of it.'"

To be fair, speakers were unanimous in advising rural communities to be well armed with facts and a business plan before going to any level of government for financial help.

But in an interview at the conference, telecommunications consultant Laura Bradley -- who helps rural municipalities with their broadband funding applications -- said without government funding bringing broadband to rural communities likely won't happen.

"A lot of networks won't get built without financing from somewhere," she said. "The private sector alone is not going to go out and build the kind of networks that (municipalities) are trying to get built in rural areas. They're not interested."