Good Enough Broadband

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Several local politicians ask me why they should pursue getting grant funding for their county since Starlink satellite and fixed-wireless access (FWA) cellular broadband seem like good broadband alternatives that are already here today. I hate to tell them that these technologies are not a good permanent solution. At the same time, I stress that they should be promoting these technologies to make sure that folks know there are some better alternatives available today than other extremely slow broadband options. But I don’t think either of these technologies is a long-term broadband solution. The primary problem with thinking of FWA cellular as a permanent solution is the reach of the technology. Somebody living right under a tower might be able to get 200 Mbps broadband today. But the strong cellular service doesn’t carry far from a given tower. The distance issue wouldn’t be a big problem if rural counties were peppered with cell towers – but most rural counties don’t have nearly enough towers to support this technology. A final issue with FWA is that cellular carriers give priority to cell phones over home broadband. Satellite broadband is also not a great long-term solution for several reasons. Starlink has already said that it will only serve some fixed number of customers in a given geographic area – a number it won’t disclose. Starlink is never going to be willing to serve all of the rural customers in a county – when it reaches it’s target customers it won’t sell more connections.


Good Enough Broadband