Why are rural broadband providers using wireless? Is wireless better?
Not at all! Wireless is the only communication link available in the rural area that has the capacity to carry broadband service. The only other rural infrastructure that is available is the phone line and it does not have the capacity for broadband beyond a few kilometres. Also, most rural phone lines are on a multiplex system that even further limits the data capacity. Wireless communications have a number of transmission impairments that affect reliability and throughput. A fibre optic network would be the best solution for reliable broadband. For example, our previous wireless technology had a bit error rate of 1 in 100,000 bits. Our new technology has a bit error rate of 1 in 100,000,000 bits. A fibre optic network would have a bit error rate of 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 bits or less. That is what we should be trying to build in this area. Wireless connections will always have more issues than a cable delivery service. We see wireless as a stop gap solution until something more appro
