It seems more than likely that Centurylink Sales/Marketing convinced a few counties to use them and then sold itself to other counties as "the" provider for such services.
Not enough, I would wager. It's something I spend a lot of time thinking about, living in one of the largest cities in the country now, with parents who live comfortably in the rural south-but have complained about the internet a couple of times.
To their credit, they'll lose connectivity for hours and not even mind, since mom will just turn on the radio and listen to the local PBS station and tend to her garden while dad goes out to his woodshop.
Others in their community probably aren't as content without connectivity, for such long periods as they are.
There was a always a tension when it comes to outsourcing and considering core competencies in the orgs I saw. Can imagine less appetite for creative solutions when critical things like 911 are involved.