I'm not sure that's widely true. Consider:

* Most Internet usage is via smartphone

* Computers are much more stable than they used to be

* Much of the world lives in places with less stable connections

* The most expensive spec in an Internet connection is availability. You can get a low-end 15 Mbps connection with no availability guarantee for $40/month; a T1 is one-tenth the speed and costs 10 times as much (all numbers are rough estimates).

You mentioned smartphone. Once your computer dies you can use your smartphone. You can use your neighbours or colleagues computer.

It's only so many heavy industries that definitely need some sort of local infrastructure (probably not master tho) to be locally.