  In telecommunications, network service accessibility as a requirement is
closely related to equitably serving the population residing at locations that
can most appropriately be described as remote. Remote connectivity, however,
would have benefited from a more inclusive consideration in the existing
generations of mobile communications. To remedy this, sustainability and its
social impact are being positioned as key drivers of sixth generation's (6G)
research and standardization activities. In particular, there has been a
conscious attempt to understand the demands of remote wireless connectivity,
which has led to a better understanding of the challenges that lie ahead. In
this perspective, this article overviews the key challenges associated with
constraints on network design and deployment to be addressed for providing
broadband connectivity to rural areas, and proposes novel approaches and
solutions for bridging the digital divide in those regions.
