I've been wondering about remote cell towers as well. When I'm out in rural areas I'll regularly get 'LTE', but my downloads will be considerably slower than when I'm in a city (despite a much lower population density). My assumption is that it's very expensive to get highspeed internet out to these locations.

This should enable cell phone companies to place a tower as long as they can run power to it (and solar panels might be an option for really remote towers).