Is broadband the holy grail for rural towns?

The Washington Post has a fascinating story today about the divergent paths of two small towns in Virginia that managed to tap into high-speed broadband data lines.

Many high-tech companies have heralded a January report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a research organization, that stated that an investment of $10 billion in broadband networks across the country would create nearly 500,000 jobs, including the hard-hat jobs digging trenches and laying fiber lines. Other positions would come from businesses that rise from high-tech innovation and better productivity, the report said.

But some economists have questioned such predictions, saying that bringing high-speed Internet to rural areas is much more complicated.

“For the idea that some sort of magical economic development will occur, there is no evidence that that can happen,” said Robert W. Crandall, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has studied the issue.