[yardie]

I think that's the idea. Certain cities and regions become poles for similar, but competing industries. Finance in Manhattan, technology in Silicon Valley, insurance in Connecticut, etc. Other cities try to emulate these places but usually have partial or no success. Even if they put fiber in every building and give it away for free they still lack the human network that could take advantage of it.

Also, these types of networks take decades to build up. Most people don't have that much time to wait. It took money from the Manhattan project (70 years) to get SV to where it is today.