This may have been a good idea back in the day but the problem with social policies like this is that they are very hard to change. Now that we have few farmers living out in rural areas and food prices are cheap, us city people are in fact subsidizing the living costs of those living in the country.

Its not just phone lines but also streets, post offices, etc. The overall efficiency of city living is much higher but due to policies like this we don't end up getting lower phone bills or pay less for our roads.

I don't believe that telecom companies should be completely unregulated but policies like this are an example of socialist policies that can decrease overall efficiency.