Letter: Lawmakers right to seek stop to broadband monopoly

Posted 8/23/21

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 …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Letter: Lawmakers right to seek stop to broadband monopoly

Posted

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.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.