Many times I am on the road with questionable Internet connectivity. Many times my EVDO 3G card is faster than the oversubscribed hotel internet access and I'll use that card in a pinch.
In those situations, I might want or need to log into Lync to Lync up with people.
Due to the limited bandwidth, I don't necessarily want people to try to do a video conference with me, but as long as my RSSI is -90 to -80 (3 "bars" to 4 "bars"), I can actually do a decent Communicator call or call thru the mediation server.
I have needed to do this in certain situations when I have a malfunctioning or dying cell phone. Combined with a Bluetooth headset, and the 3g card, I've been able to make calls I'd otherwise would need to find a pay phone. Pay phones are becoming as rare as a Sony Walkman.
With all that in mind, if you allow end users to set the location in their Communicator, you can advertise that you are on a bandwidth limited connection:
Not necessarily the original intent of that section of the Lync client, but it is an easy indicator to coworkers that you are on a bandwidth starved connection.
I personally can't wait until the LTE networks are deployed nationwide. With that, in theory, this 'workaround' for advertising a limited bandwidth connection goes away.