In a ruling handed down Wednesday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ordered Canada’s internet providers to begin working towards boosting internet service and speeds in rural and isolated areas.

The ruling is welcome news in rural communities across Canada, struggling without high speed internet.

“I found it quite exciting, we’ve been waiting for a decision like that to come,” says Elspeth McLean-Wile, a resident of Wileville, N.S.

For many residents of rural communities, lack of high-speed internet means they have to go to another location to use the web.

“I’m like many people who run businesses, that don’t have good access at their homes and have to come to another location to work,” says McLean-Wile.

In the past, community meetings about the availability of high speed internet in the Bridgewater area were attended by dozens of frustrated customers.

Governments have been promising improvements for years, but change has been slower than dial-up.

“Our provincial government has told us to solve this problem in Southwest N.S., it would take $450 million,” says McLean-Wile.

Shanna Joudrey and her family moved home to Branch-LaHave, N.S. from Toronto a year ago. She runs an online business, but the lack of rural broadband service has made that difficult.

“It takes me probably twice as long to do something than it would if I had better internet service,” says Joudrey.

Joudrey says something needs to change, both for her young son and her business.

“There are days when I sit at my desk and I wonder, why am I doing this? And I don’t want to wonder why I’m doing this in five years,” says Joudrey.

The CRTC aims to have all Canadians connected within 15 years.

In a statement issued Thursday, Provincial Business Minister Mark Furey said improving access to rural internet is a top priority for government.

“We have said repeatedly that ensuring access to better internet services for rural communities is a top priority of government. I’m pleased to see that the CRTC agrees.

We are currently reviewing the full CRTC decision to understand how it affects our programs, and will continue to work to bring better internet services to more rural Nova Scotians through partnerships that include the private sector, community groups, and municipal, provincial and federal levels of government.

One example is our recently-launched program for communities and municipalities to provide funding for projects with immediate results, and we have also engaged a project team that’s looking at our long-term strategy and the potential to bring more rural Nova Scotian communities in line with targeted speeds.”

The CRTC says internet providers will pay into a fund to extend service to the estimated two million Canadians without broadband internet connection. The cost estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Sarah Ritchie.