[billpaetzke]

And what is a good strategy for this when deciding where to live (both on macro and micro scale)?

[sliverstorm]

Reasonable proximity to a major city is probably a decent starting point.

What's a major city? If we're still in the coarse-estimate mode, I'd say a city most people have heard of.

Maps of internet backbones will help you locate the ideal places, from a connectivity point of view.

http://www.nthelp.com/images/InternetMCI.jpg

[jwilliams]

It varies by location.

In many places, a 3G or 4G backup works amazingly well. Certainly here in Australia, and probably in certain places in Asia/Europe too.