She said take-up of satellite broadband would be higher if people knew the subsidies brought its cost closer to city ADSL prices.

According to the report, more than 83 percent of wireless ISPs offer regional services and there are 56 percent more wireless broadband infrastructure owners regionally than in cities.

"In metropolitan areas, ISPs have wholesale wireless service options to choose from, which saves them the expense and effort of deploying their own infrastructure, [whereas] in rural locations an ISP may have no choice but to deploy its own fixed wireless services," Evans said.