With an eye on ever-faster shipping, Amazon has been striking deals with states to build massive distribution centers close to urban centers in exchange for delaying the start of sales-tax collection or other advantages.

WSJ: Tax-Free Web Shopping Nears End

Universal service funds (USF) are set up by levies on telecoms in individual countries, which are then used to increase consumer access based on criteria such as income distribution, rural and urban population ratios, literacy and geography.

BBC: Rural and poor mobile access funds 'not being spent'

We use a field-tested methodology with our clients that is supported by a proprietary analytic model for forecasting population and income distribution annually through 2020 in urban and rural China.

FORBES: Unlocking China's Consumer Power

Mr Hogg added that he was looking at the "policing model" and the distribution of officers between rural, urban and coastal areas of the two counties and Isles of Scilly.

BBC: PCC Tony Hogg

Expanding distribution capacity is often impossible in crowded urban areas, and elsewhere people dislike new power lines.

ECONOMIST: Charge ahead

The stories sound like urban legends, only they're true: A judge halts the distribution of a Bruce Willis movie because one scene resembles a drawing by an avant-garde architect.

FORBES: Name That Note

And it says regional grant distribution and a move to more specific grants are likely to favour urban councils.

BBC: News | UK | Country councils demand rural taskforce