"We know what it's like to have Cache County, Box Elder County and part of Rich County just disappear from the world," said Stoddard, enterprise architect with Moore Wallace DCS & R.R. Donnelley Co.

Cell phones, ATMs, credit card machines and other business necessities simply failed to work because they couldn't link to their networks. Businesses couldn't even make long-distance phone calls, and calls could not get through to 911 emergency services. "It had a really profound effect on the valley," he said.

"Certainly, what we saw in the business community here was with increased business on the Internet, even to the extent that transactions and billings were done on the Internet, those businesses increasingly reliant on that were hesitant to locate in Cache Valley, and there were even instances where businesses moved elsewhere," said Campbell, president of Campbell Scientific and chairman of a chamber committee that worked to get the redundant line.

The Qwest and Comcast lines take different paths, alleviating the chance that something like a backhoe could halt all high-tech communications.

"The most significant aspect of an alternate route is the removal of a barrier that we would be isolated for any significant period of time, especially those businesses doing a higher amount of telecommunications. It certainly behooves them to have a certain portion of their capacity be able to be routed on either Qwest's or Comcast's networks," Campbell said.

Stoddard said the Internet access and other technologies the line provides can be leveraged to help his business and others.

"Between a carrier link (from Qwest) and what Comcast has brought in, that gives us the availability for specific technologies to be deployed, primarily through the Internet and Internet services. . . . For a vast number of our clientele, that alternate path is an excellent component now for them to know that they have that alternate option to have access to our facility. We move large volumes of data, and because we move large volumes of data between ourselves and our customers, this type of alternate connectivity is important."

Cache County's realization of the need for a redundant line came at a bad time, at the end of the dot-com boom, when telecom companies started to rethink capital investment for installing fiber lines.

"Making the business case was tough," Tenney said. "A lot of businesses looked at it and were not willing to take the risk. Nationwide, there is a lot of fiber in the ground that is unused, and there was a hesitancy of companies to lay additional fiber. We, too, struggled with the business case, but we were able to work with the different people and made it all work out. It's a win-win for everybody."