Winnipesaukee Forum - View Single Post - Attention nhec members: Vote for broadband before 10/14

MAXUM · 10-06-2020, 08:52 AM

This whole thing makes little sense to me. Why would the coop who is NOT a broadband carrier take on the costs of putting in the infrastructure backbone for broad band access? If it were a matter of a broadband provider wanting access to real estate on the NHEC poles that would be a different story since this would actually not cost the coop anything, in fact could turn into a revenue stream if they actually charged for such use.

What many fail to realize is that there is a really good reason why hard wired broadband is not available in rural areas. The costs are not conducive for running hard media and maintaining it for a handful of customers that are geographically dispersed. The fact this is even being considered IMHO is so short sighted in that technology in the wireless space continues to advance and at some point that will be the media of choice. As it is 4G cellular is not bad. 5G will bring speeds that rival broad band and it would be far more beneficial for that to be the media of choice versus fiber optic. Even so the costs to install this stuff an maintain it becomes cost prohibitive in areas of thin population as there is simply not enough customer base to spread the costs out and keep them reasonable.

10-06-2020, 08:52 AM	#8
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	This whole thing makes little sense to me. Why would the coop who is NOT a broadband carrier take on the costs of putting in the infrastructure backbone for broad band access? If it were a matter of a broadband provider wanting access to real estate on the NHEC poles that would be a different story since this would actually not cost the coop anything, in fact could turn into a revenue stream if they actually charged for such use. What many fail to realize is that there is a really good reason why hard wired broadband is not available in rural areas. The costs are not conducive for running hard media and maintaining it for a handful of customers that are geographically dispersed. The fact this is even being considered IMHO is so short sighted in that technology in the wireless space continues to advance and at some point that will be the media of choice. As it is 4G cellular is not bad. 5G will bring speeds that rival broad band and it would be far more beneficial for that to be the media of choice versus fiber optic. Even so the costs to install this stuff an maintain it becomes cost prohibitive in areas of thin population as there is simply not enough customer base to spread the costs out and keep them reasonable.