Guest Opinion: Make Use of Broadband Capacity

By John Poletti

There seems to be a lot of discussion about OPALCO opening up their fiber optic cable to Broadband and Telephone service. The people of the county must get behind this proposal. Otherwise, as the Internet gets more complicated and requires more bandwidth, our access will be limited and become obsolete. Right now in major cities, customers get access as high as 12 MB per second. Copper telephone lines can’t provide this type of speed. In a few years one will need speeds of 50 MB per second to have reliable service. Century Tel can’t afford to lay optical fiber on the islands because the market will not support it.

OPALCO was required to install this cable and has excess capacity. Most likely, OPALCO will not be the ultimate provider since they are in the power business, and Internet/Phone Service is a very different business. Therefore, OPALCO probably will sublet the Internet and Telephone services operation to the local providers handling it now. We will just get better service.

The islands’ emergency services will benefit from improved communication that is badly needed. It will encourage more tourism to the islands. Visitors seek better Internet and Telephone service, too. We are all dependent on the Internet today, like it or not. Higher bandwidth and better cell service will encourage more small businesses to establish their presence on the islands.

A few people are concerned that if small six-foot cell towers are attached to power poles around the islands, brain cancer will increase on the islands. These cell towers provide the radiation of a 100-watt light bulb. There is plenty of scientific proof that these towers do not cause cancer. But to calm the fears of some consumers, OPALCO could provide free tin hats to customers who are concerned.