Fiber is truly tech-industry standard

By Robert Ridge
Published: Friday, March 17, 2006 9:57 a.m. MST
E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
The arguments that Jay Evensen makes in his column "Cities finding getting wired pricey, passe" published on March 5 appear to be based on little more than a couple of hours of Web browsing. To argue that Provo ought to look to a "free" wireless network to support its future communication infrastructure is to reveal Mr. Evensen's lack of technical expertise in the area of high-speed data network systems.

Wireless technology has certain limitations which make it wholly unsuitable for the kind of services the iProvo network provides, which include hundreds of television channels, high-speed data and voice services. The fiber-based system ("fiber-to-the-home") that Provo has adopted is recognized by the largest industry companies (including wireless-giant Verizon) as the only technology that will be able to support the increased bandwidth that will be required to provide the services that consumers will want in the future. IProvo has been designed to allow for the scale-up of its data-transfer capacity to several gigabytes per second while wireless networks struggle to provide sufficient bandwidth even for today's modest requirements.

Mr. Evensen's comparison of iProvo to Google's San Francisco wireless initiative is like comparing apples to oranges. The "free" network proposed by Google for San Francisco will run approximately 300 times slower than the standard iProvo data rate. It won't provide hundreds of digital-quality television channels, and its narrow bandwidth won't provide for common Internet tasks such as downloading music, pictures or video. A typical song that would load over the iProvo network in 6 seconds would take about half an hour over the Google network. And many people have voiced concern regarding questions of privacy (Google would track all customer movements in order to provide location-specific advertising) and unwanted advertisements which require download time and screen space required to produce revenue for Google. Indeed, we live in a world where you get what you pay for. At best, a citywide wireless service would be a complement to the iProvo system rather than a replacement. In fact, Provo is testing appropriate wireless technology to extend the iProvo system, enabling the city's mobile fire and police forces to communicate more effectively.

Story continues below
As further evidence that fiber is truly the industry standard, consider the fact that Verizon, one of the nation's largest wireless service providers, has acknowledged the limitations of wireless and has announced that it expects to make an $800 million capital investment in fiber-to-the-premises this year.

Robert Ridge is the director of information services for the city of Provo.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.