Campaigners in Moray have demanded extra incentives are introduced to promote improvements to rural broadband speeds.
The Finderne Development Trust has been investigating the possibility of running its own project to increase connection speeds in the area.
The group, which covers the villages of Rafford and Dunphail, south of Forres, wants to help make the region more attractive to help attract and retain residents.
Openreach has already publicised planned improvements to download speeds in Forres.
However, the trust and Finderne Community Council say attempts by them to secure costings to improve rural connections have gone unanswered.
Trust chairman Brian Higgs said: “With Openreach’s announcements about Gigabit services in Forres it is patently obvious that the commercial drivers far outweigh their protestations about supporting rural communities.
“They are a business, and perhaps we should not have expected anything else.”
Community council secretary Howard Davenport said: “Rural communities such as Burgie, Rafford and Dunphail, which can hardly be described as ‘remote and hard to reach’ are being put at the back of the queue.
“Issues with broadband access is a topic raised frequently by Finderne residents.”
An Openreach spokeswoman said: “We’ve been engaged with the trust from initial contact in August 2019 to more recent follow up Zoom calls, and have looked carefully at whether the build could be extended as far as their area.
“Unfortunately, even with the use of the government vouchers, the indicative costs outweigh the funding available.”
The Scottish Government said its recently announced £384million investment in internet services across the north would help 80% of households reach gigabit speeds.
A spokeswoman added: “We will now issue Openreach with an updated intervention area which takes account of changes in commercial build plans, allowing them to plan based on the most up-to-date data.”