In case you missed it, I wrote a letter last week that cited Enterprise articles about a town fiber optic internet proposal. I suggested that fiber optic would be expensive, and new wireless internet would/could be cheaper.

The letter got me into a good conversation with David Isenberg, one of the people working on the town internet infrastructure plan. I know David from other things (especially music) around Falmouth, so it was fun to talk tech. Anyway, I learned a number of things worth sharing.

First, I learned that fiber optics on the poles is not particularly exotic nor expensive as these things go. It’s 30-year infrastructure. So the cost is well spread out and the fibers are quite durable. They use Kevlar to strengthen the conductor, and it is actually the strongest strand on the poles. They use almost no electronics on the poles, which increases reliability substantially.

Second, the newer 5G high-speed wireless service sounds less expensive than hanging all this fiber, but it comes in two flavors. The long-range one (T-Mobile) eventually requires more cell towers to cover the town, and those towers are also expensive and hard to site (partly due to NIMBY—not in my back yard). In other words, more towers for wireless are not necessarily cheaper than running fiber on poles where there is already established right-of-way on the poles, even all the way to the house premises. The other 5G wireless flavor is many short-range antennas which are themselves mounted on the poles, each antenna is connected to, you guessed it, fiber optic internet on the poles. It’s really a hybrid wireless-plus-fiber system.

At this point I hope you catch my point, which is if my original letter sounded like “wireless good, cheap, fiber optics bad, expensive,” I have learned that is much too simplistic a view.

So, feeling suitably schooled by David on all this, I asked him what he thought about the $50 per month T-Mobile wireless home internet offering I had mentioned. Of course, he admitted he signed up for it immediately, which made me smile. At the moment it is the best deal going. I think we are both interested in how well it holds up next summer, when there are many more people in town sharing the antennas.

Note that I have no financial interest in T-Mobile other than being a customer. I just mention them because they are the first to offer wireless home internet service in our area.

Michael J. Beckerle

Two Ponds Road
Falmouth

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As a local telemedicine doctor, I wrote several weeks ago supporting the development of a community-controlled fiber optic communication network because our present service often doesn’t work well for medical communications, or for that matter, keeping up with grandchildren.

Last Friday, a well-intentioned letter writer seemed to regard the fiber optic plan as unnecessarily grandiose, likening it to a superhighway. Actually, I see the plan as a well-structured good investment.

Glass fiber, once installed, lasts a long time. The electronics used for wireless communication doesn’t have that longevity. Wireless is only as good as you are close to one of their towers. Communities can add to their existing underground conduits or their poles for the fiber optic system. I think it’s likely that as use increases, big corporations will give us even less for our dollar than they get away with now. FalmouthNet will give us an affordable alternative.

Dr. Alan B. Steinbach

Mast Road
Woods Hole

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Recent articles described town and regional efforts to obtain new internet infrastructure. There was discussion of fiber optics, et cetera. I have to say, fiber optic internet may be great, but a fiber is like an eight-lane superhighway. They are great, and having one nearby might be good in dense suburban areas, but I don’t exactly need one that stops in my driveway.

What we need is multiple competitors in the ISP market. The articles I read in the Falmouth Enterprise did not consider wireless carriers. Wireless technology has advanced and now is actually capable of providing high-speed internet over wide areas.

Recently, T-Mobile has started rolling out home internet service at $50 per month. This is 100 percent wireless. I got it and it works great, always measuring well above 100MBps, that is, plenty fast enough for whatever you’ve got. It is cost competitive with the least-expensive 100mbps internet-only offerings from Xfininty/Comcast.

Before our town gets into exotic things like hanging fiber optics on poles—which really make more sense in back-haul infrastructure than to-the-home—I suggest the mobile networks, with innovators like T-Mobile, can be the 2nd+ competitors we need.

Other than being a customer, I have no financial interest in T-Mobile. I just mention them because they are the first to offer wireless home internet service in our area.

Michael J. Beckerle

Two Ponds Road
Falmouth

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