Author: Bennett Cyphers Staff Technologist

A publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 11, 2019

Snippet:

5G is a big step forward, but it is not a panacea. Millimeter-wave 5G will use more bandwidth to serve fewer devices in a smaller area, so it should be able to deliver true gigabit speeds. It should be able to deliver last-hop latencies that are comparable to, or even better than, fiber-to-the-home. However, mmWave deployments will require running fiber-optic cables to individual buildings in order to be useful. In other words, the most exciting parts of 5G will supplement, rather than replace, fiber-to-the-home.

Fiber is the superior medium for carrying fixed broadband by almost every metric: available bandwidth, SNR, theoretical capacity, real-world throughput, latency, and jitter. Furthermore, fiber cables can be installed now and upgraded for decades to come, while most existing coax infrastructure will likely need to be replaced within the next few years in order to keep up with consumer demand. While 5G is a promising upgrade over 4G, long-range wireless broadband cannot outperform fiber as a last-mile link to homes and businesses. In highly populated areas, mmWave 5G will be a supplement to, not a replacement for, fiber-to-the-home. In rural areas, attempting to install enough fiber to enough base stations to provide full mmWave coverage makes less sense than to simply run wireline service to each home. And to top it off, future upgrades to both DOCSIS and wireless broadband will require laying many miles of new fiber. As a result, civic planners looking ahead should invest in last-mile fiber infrastructure today. Fiber-to-the-home is the best option to serve most Americans with high-speed, low-latency broadband now, and it will remain so for the foreseeable future.

https://www.eff.org/wp/case-fiber-home-today-why-fiber-superior-medium-21st-century-b roadband

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January 26, 2018: New report evaluates significant risks of planned ‘antenna densification’ in the U.S. and calls for investment in high-speed fiber-based Internet access to every household and workplace.

The U.S. Should Instead Invest in Hard-Wired Telecommunications Infrastructure to Support Economic Growth, Bridge the Digital Divide and Diminish Risks to Security, Privacy, Public Health and the Environment.

Because broadband networks and the Internet have become vital components of our nation’s physical, cultural and social structure, the future of these networks, the report says, must be steered towards the fastest, most reliable and future-proof, and secure infrastructure available. Such infrastructure would be wired, not wireless.

‘Antenna densification’ plans pose significant risks and do not serve the public’s best interest.

Dr. Timothy Schoechle, author of the report and Senior Research Fellow at NISLAPP, says, “We are seeing the present national emphasis on wireless technologies because the ‘triopoly’ of Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast that dominates our access to the Internet imposes artificial scarcity, planned obsolescence, and high prices to maintain their immense profits. It is in their interest to obscure the fact that advanced copper and optical fiber are far superior to wireless in both cost and performance.”

From a broad analysis of available data, “Re-Inventing Wires: The Future of Landlines and Networks” demonstrates wireless systems cannot provide long-term solutions for universal, reliable and affordable Internet accessibility, nor support the ever-increasing data rates that will be needed in the near future for each American home and business. Investment in wired, not wireless, information infrastructure is needed across the U.S. right now.

Schoechle says, “Government officials have been misled about the adequacy of wireless communications. Legislators should stop enabling the wireless industry’s plans for massive new deployments of 4G LTE and soon 5G millimeter wave antennas throughout American neighborhoods, and instead commit to supporting reliable, energy-efficient and enduring hard-wired telecommunications infrastructure that meets the nation’s immediate and long-term needs.”

“Re-Inventing Wires: The Future of Landlines and Networks” explains why on technological, and other grounds, including the energy guzzling nature of wireless antennas and networks, an intensely wireless approach to communications, now being planned by the wireless industry, is the wrong direction, and very clearly not in the public’s best interest.

“Largely due to failures and consequences of the Telecommunications Act of 1996,” Schoechle says, “the Internet is not living up to its potential. It has been hijacked by the commercial motivations that have come to re-define and constrain the availability, quality, content, and media of high-speed access in the United States…. While other countries are investing to assure citizens’ access to a fast and reliable information highway, U.S. legislators appear asleep at the switch, captured by the wireless industry and its lobbyists.”

Importantly, “Reinventing Wires: The Future of Landlines and Networks” explains the renaissance that has occurred in wired technologies in recent years and how these advances offer tremendous potential for America’s sustainable connectivity of the future, one that is fast, equitable, safe, secure, and energy-efficient.

The paper, “Re-Inventing Wires: The Future of Landlines and Networks,” will be presented as part of a panel at The Commonwealth Club of California, Monday, February 5^th at 5:30 p.m. in San Francisco, CA.

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