As the national carriers build out their networks, they have less need to pay rural providers for roaming privileges.

Verizon announced it would shorten the exclusivity contracts for some handsets to six months so that rural providers can have them.

On the other hand, rural providers were more likely to report their specialty as family or general practice.

I took this to mean the rural providers, as the article mentioned.

In 70 years, Dobson had evolved to become the nation's largest independent rural wireless provider.

Dobson was, for the most part, a rural provider.

Interestingly, rural providers were also more likely to be board-certified than their urban and suburban peers.

In particular, MICRA is said to protect specialty and high-risk services, including women's services, community clinics and rural providers that can least afford skyrocketing insurance costs.

"While we think it's about prescription drugs, the promoters of this bill put money into every interest group: physicians, hospitals, rural providers, cancer doctors, on the drug side, the pharmaceutical and insurance industries."

The DMS-10 is widely used by rural wireline providers.