To the editor:

The efforts by the Newport County state delegation should be applauded as the status quo of a monopoly provider providing unreliable and exorbitantly expensive landline broadband service is simply unacceptable. Rep. Ruggiero rightfully recognizes that without competition via fiber to the premises for “last mile” connections, Newport County, with its badly aged copper infrastructure, will quickly be left behind on the wrong side of the new “digital divide.”

The superior transmission medium for broadband is via fiber optic cables, as the signals are not subject to electromagnetic interference and travel long distances without requiring signal regeneration. Fiber infrastructure is “future proof” as capacity is seamlessly upgraded via swapping end-point electronics.

In closing, it is about access, affordability, resiliency, and reliability. I encourage everyone to review the Electronic Frontier Foundation's white paper, “Why Fiber is a Superior Medium for 21st Century Broadband.” 

In closing, “If it's not fiber, it's not broadband” (and it is not even close). 

Theodore Pietz

85 Glen Road

Portsmouth

Mr. Pietz is a principal with Aquidneck Light, a Rhode Island benefit corporation.