by
dane » Thu Aug 17, 2017 11:42 am
eltonhom wrote:Sonic Fiber is available 1 block West, 1 block North, and 2 blocks East of me. I'm in the middle of the block with no aerial lines. Has Sonic thought about using antennas, for us customers that can't get access, similar to what Monkey Brains is building?
There are some interesting developments in wireless technologies, but none yet provide the level of performance and reliability of wireline services. This isn't about reaching "as good as fiber", because that's not possible, but for a wireless technology to be compelling and worth deploying, it needs to be better than cable at least. And with cable capable of delivering gigabit speeds, this means gigabit wireless.
Just a few months ago, one vendor launched a gigabit-capable point-to-multipoint wireless solution, using 60ghz mmWave spectrum. It's an interesting product, but the range is very, very short. And deployment is more complex than fiber; instead of just a cable and passive terminal on the pole and strand, you'll have to deploy an antenna -- and batteries.
We're also monitoring developments in 3.5ghz spectrum and policy, and technologies like massive MIMO, which along with mmWave technologies, may begin to build a wireless technology ecosystem that could arguably supplant wireline cable or provide practical, near-equivilent service to fiber. But in our view, we're not there yet.
Another infrastructure deployment topic is g.Fast, which allows for delivering of near-Gigabit speeds over short distances of Category-3 twisted-pair telephone wire. This could be used in older apartment buildings, to bring fiber to the ground floor and then distribute in the building with the old copper. Again, it's a technology we are keeping an eye on, but at this point we are investing in full fiber to the unit in apartment buildings, because we see that as a future-proof long-term investment which allows for delivery of a consistent service across our entire platform.
Our group spends a lot of time thinking about the technologies, regulatory policy, practical construction issues and service design for broadband, and we're happy to be building more fiber, more places, at a rapidly accelerating pace.