ashe

A cell tower is not totally wireless. They are unseen but most cell towers do require a certain amount of fiber to operate.

Go see Virginia Foxx before she retires and get a promise from her. Tell her you gave her 10K in campaign cash.

5g is a wireless technology, it doesn't require new lines. It requires new antennas to be built. It's probably cheaper than new lines, but it's still an investment. There was s a possibility of getting a rural grant to pay for such new infrastructure (that's how skyline has paid for running fiber everywhere) but you still have to get a company interested first.

At this time, I don't see additional communication companies expanding into more of rural Ashe County due to a number of reasons.

Population and potential customer base needs to be of a sufficient number to justify the cost of expansion and the chance/risk of little return on the investment of expansion. With the 2020 Census numbers due out late this year or early 2021, that may shed light on this point.

Cost of expansion is a big unknown at this time. I anticipate that other communication companies have looked at expansion into rural Ashe County and have decided its not best at time.

Cost of expansion goes beyond just hanging new lines on existing poles. The majority of the exiting poles in rural Ashe County are not tall enough to allow an additional utility hung in the communication space while at the same time providing adequate vertical clearance over the roadways. With the mountain rock, its unlikely that any new communications lines could be installed underground of a significant nature.

Regulations, well this is just what it is, regulations. Some can be mitigated, some are roadblocks.

So you haven't researched the laws to see what they can and can't do? You just want to whine to the FCC like a little kid begging for a new toy?

There is nothing preventing a company from investing in the area and building a 5g network except a lack of enough customers to make it profitable. 5g requires a lot more antennas because the range is so much more limited than existing cellphone signals. Without finding a service provider that's interested in building a network, this is a waste of time.

I would like to see what they can do to help open up competition in our county.

No, my question isn't about what they say. My question is what do you want them to do. If you can't answer that, no one should sign anything you have created, because you have no plan.

I tell ya what, as soon as I hear back from the contacts I made, (federal and state), I'll keep you updated. So hopefully, we will see what the government maybe can help us out with.

The theories about the dangers are based on the idea that the frequency that 5g operates on is at the same part of the spectrum that microwave ovens generate. But the people touting this miss several points. He being that it's not the same of RF signal just because it's at the same frequency. The other part is that that part of the spectrum, in radio signals, has very limited penetrating power. It's such a high frequency that it takes very little material to stop the signal. Short explanation is, it can't penetrate the human body. Also, it has a very short range. 5g doesn't work on the same type of towers as other cell signals. I mean it can, but because of the short range it takes more towers. So service providers are doing things like putting antennas on light poles (like each one down the road).

I found a recent article from the American Cancer Society that says the claims are not substantiated at this time. I guess we have to believe it.

There have always been claims of that...but I saw some hilarious videos of people who really think that 5G causes Covid

Is it anything to the towers causing cancer or some other health condition?

5G causes the Corona!

It's the towers that appear to be the health concern.

5G I tried to make a post about 5G but the censoring Nazi blocked it because it has another social media site mentioned in it.

"The government as you say, like the presidential candidates, have been looking into this, so what I'm meaning is to help make this happen and to give people more options. The government is suppose to help speak for the people and I know there might be differing opinions on that, we don't have to get into that. But the people have to speak to make their voice heard.

As far as adverse health affects, there's just as much of a risk from your phone or laptop that you use to make this post.

I have read some articles that state it has serious potential health concerns but I don't know if that is factual or not. I like the voodoo part of it.

I read that stuff is bad voodoo and causes COVID

No one said they are opposed to it. I asked what do you want the government to do about it.

I don't see why anybody would be opposed to expanding the access in services to rural communities like Ashe in regards to telecommunication services. This has been the whole point of my original post. Having more service options that provides locals with what they need, while also helping the local community by staying up to date with current technologies. I was just trying to gauge interest, I've noticed other threads on here that relate to people inquiring about other options than Skyline. The point was not to have irrelevant bipartisan political comments put in.