[RTC List] [2] Broadband Associates project

[William Van Hefner]

Chris,

What is more important here, "future proof", or reliability? Just look at
the number of fiber cuts we have had in the past 2-3 years that resulted
in a complete loss of ALL connectivity to the outside world since the new
fiber link went in.

Compare that to the number of times we lost all voice/data contact with
the outside world in the previous 25+ years that we used microwave (only
once that I can ever recall, during an extremely bad storm that did
massive damage throughout Humboldt County in the 1980's). Remember, the
only reason that we even need redundancy in the the first place is because
of how UNreliable fiber has proven to be!

With any type of wireless or microwave, the main start-up cost is in
buying real-estate and erecting towers. Equipment on those towers can be
upgraded to newer technologies as they emerge. The cost to upgrade an
existing wireless network is millions less than it would cost to upgrade a
network buried underground. To my mind, that makes wireless a much more
flexible and "future proof" technology than fiber. Just look how many
advances have been made to wireless technology in the past 20 years as
compared to how much is "new" in fiberoptics. For my money (and that IS
whose money we are talking about), I'll take wireless over fiber any day.


-- 
William Van Hefner - President
Vantek Communications, Inc.
e-mail: vantek at humboldtonline.com


> Fiber is currently the most **future-proof** method available for the
> backbone, and its capacity is enormous. And to fiber to the home or to
> distribute broadband into the community, it is not essential (and is too
> expensive for this purpose).