I spent a good part of the day with a group of economic developers in a major northeastern state. We had some businesspeople in the meeting as well, and listened as two business owners described their frustration with the lack of connectivity outside of major metropolitan areas. In one case, the business owner had moved his staff and business headquarters from the New York metro area to a small city with a lower cost of living and great recreational opportunities near by (relocation based on quality of life issues, not water and sewer availability). The other business was moving many of its operations centers into rural areas for much the same reason.
But both had broadband horror stories. One business, located in a downtown area, said they needed a fiber connection to service provider facilities a block away, but thought that the city permitting process might take as much as a year. The other business, which had moved from the New York area, had to leave their data servers there because they could not get redundant data connections to an appropriate facility in the more rural small city.
Both stories illustrate the shift in economic development. The old real estate truism about the three most important issues for a business ("Location, location, location") has changed to "Location, location, connectivity." There is a growing trend among medium and large businesses, after 9/11 and Katrina, to decentralize operations and to have multiple data centers to ensure that the business can keep running after a local emergency. Communities that have the right connectivity options and good quality of life will have lots of opportunities.