Even Indianapolis 2nd Graders Would Not Believe

. . . the 4G and 5G Wireless Fairy Tale Told by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr


Adapted from an article by bruce kushnick Nov 26, 2018 | Original Medium article here.

The FCC’s Extreme-Density Indianapolis 4G and 5G Fairy Tale

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The picture above is an old map of “The Mile Square” in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is the center of town and was designed in 1821 to mimic the street plan for Washington DC. We added the red ‘diamonds’ to show where 4G and 5G small cells might be placed.


To all of the 2nd graders (and others) reading this . . . I apologize for the FCC’s data and analysis about extreme-density 4G and 5G wireless installations in neighborhoods. Unlike what they teach you in school, these days, government agencies, like the FCC (which has oversight over your family’s wireless, cable, online and phone services) are filled with lawyers, like FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, or Chairman Ajit Pai, who formerly worked for large the Telecoms, like AT&T and Verizon.

That’s why they just make stuff up or they just plagiarize other group’s work specifically written to help these former employers. No one really cares about this extreme-density 4G and 5G stuff except these companies and those they have hyped — because this is just about making more money from the unsuspecting public. This is very much like the bullies at school that no one wants to confront; that’s why get away with it.

5G Wireless is trying to be a tech/Telecom Santa Claus, promising gifts-a-plenty. On September 4th 2018, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr made an announcement in the Senate Statehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, located in this very square mile, and then Carr took the lead and had the FCC pass new regulations, (which are now being challenged in court), to do execute this plan.

What’s the plan? The FCC and the Telecoms claim that no one cares about using the wires anymore — even in their homes or offices or even for broadband Internet.

The FCC claims that if it just

  1. Gets rid of the Telecoms’ obligations
  2. Preempts the rights of cities and states to best integrate broadband wireline and wireless technology into their own cities
  3. Aids and abets the Telecoms to renege on delivering on their commitments to bring fiber optic services to homes, schools and businesses . . .

. . .then, the FCC can shove down the throats of local residents — an unnecessary scheme, of extreme-density 4G and 5G cell towers installed on public property in the public-rights-of-way.

Most of the fast broadband and internet services rely on physical fiber optic wires because fiber optic can supply much higher speeds in greater volume, without a slowdown, using much less energy to do so. Fiber optic wires, then, are the next generation of these networks.

This is important because the download size of HD and 4K video games have been growing like crazy. How-to Geek writes:

“Modern games are nearing 100 GB in download size. Red Dead Redemption 2 on Xbox One requires an 88.57 GB download. The PC version of Middle-earth: Shadow of War is 97.7 GB. Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition requires a 75 GB download, and that’s without the 4K texture pack.”

Please don’t laugh when I tell you that

  • 4G and 5G wireless requires a fiber optic wire to the cell sites
  • Alleged “unlimited wireless” plans, supply only 20–30 GB of data, then slow down. despite the Wireless companies openly advertising that they are offering ‘unlimited’.

The FCC’s Claims and 4G and 5G Coverage are Ridiculous

Related to the first picture, this next picture is the original “The Mile Square” map in Indianapolis. Notice that this plan was done using a street ‘grid’, meaning that the streets are lined up neatly. This type of street grid design, in fact, goes back thousands of years, and can be found in ancient Rome.

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On the first map we added red ‘diamonds’ that represent a low estimate of how many 4G and 5G wireless’ small cell sites it would take to cover this one square mile.
Here is where you may want to hold your nose. By second grade, most kids can tell the difference between Santa Claus and some fat guy dressed in a red suit, ringing a Big Bell to collect money, then pocketing it.

First, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr claims that after the most intensive investment in America, there are over 1,000 small cell sites in Indiana!

“…In Indianapolis this year, making the city home to the most intensive 5G investment in America. In total, providers have built more than 1,000 small cells in 30 communities across the Hoosier state.”

Second, Carr and the FCC claim this is going to benefit rural areas, save money, and even close something called the “Digital Divide”.

“According to a recent study, Carr’s plan will save $2 billion in unnecessary fees, stimulate $2.5 billion in additional small cell deployments, and create more than 27,000 jobs. The action will also help close the Digital Divide, providing new connections to those who need them most. The economic analysis shows that Carr’s plan will see two million more homes served by small cells  — 97% of them in rural and suburban communities.”

These numbers are what grown-ups called ‘pulled-out-of-one’s ass’, a technical term you will learn by the time you’re in middle or high school. Here’s just a few holes in these numbers.

  • 1000 small cells sounds like a very large number, but it may not even cover this one square mile.
  • No where does the FCC discuss that a service with a range of 500–1000 feet will never, ever, cover most rural areas, much less suburban areas.
  • Nowhere does the FCC or Carr mention that these cell sites all have to be attached to a fiber optic wire — every 500–1000 feet, at best, and the first map with the diamonds shows that it requires wiring the entire area.
  • None of these savings that are mentioned will ever happen because the companies will never roll out the fiber optic wires to homes.
  • The FCC never mentions that wireline phone customers in rural areas or low income areas have paid and will continue to pay for the wires used for the densified 4G and 4G wireless installations in urban areas or
  • The FCC never mentions that the wireless companies pay a fraction of the expenses to use the wires once they are put in place — much, much lower than market rates.
  • FCC Brendan Carr never mentions that his announcement plagiarized the homework from a group called ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and he has handed in these new regulations as if they were the FCC’s own work
  • There is no mention that there were already plans for AT&T Indiana to give customers very high speed fiber optic broadband over 25 years ago, and customers were charged for these upgrades multiple times — and the Telecoms never delivered the goods.

Does anyone really believe that rural areas are going to be covered? This is a grown-up joke  — We can fool most of the people all of the time, but it is impossible to cover rural areas covering hundreds of miles.

Did Brendan Carr Do His Homework or Just Copy the New Regulations from Others?
Brendan Carr previously worked for Verizon, AT&T and their associations, the CTIA, the wireless association, and USTelecom. In fact, when he presented the 5G plan in Indianapolis, it appears that it was not even written by him but most likely by the American Legislative Exchange Council, where 20 states appear to have used the same 5G ALEC bill. This fact has been omitted by Commissioner Carr.

The Networks Should have Already Been Upgraded to Fiber Optics

As we pointed out previously and we want to re-emphasize one crucial point — the company that is the state utility in Indiana, AT&T Indiana, was supposed to have committed billions over time to build what was called the Information Superhighway, starting way back in 1993 — way before any second grader was born.

“Finally, the Opportunity Indiana Plan recognizes the need for Indiana Bell to provide a high level of new investment to achieve and maintain a state-of-the-art telecommunication infrastructure.”

The goal, even in the 1993 Indiana Bell (now AT&T) proposal, was to remove regulations and raise rates, but that wasn’t what they told the public. The testimony of AT&T-Indiana Bell Telephone Company, put it succinctly, but in telephone-wonk-talk.

“Indiana Bell now presents Opportunity Indiana, a progressive plan which is designed to protect the price of Basic Local service through a rate stability index, provide equal freedom to Indiana Bell to respond to competitive actions and as a consequence of reform, eliminate the outmoded and costly rate of return regulatory process. In response to approval of the total package of these forward looking initiatives by this Commission, Indiana Bell commits to accelerate and increase its infrastructure investment, thereby accelerating the benefits of technology to its customer.”

Unfortunately, there is more fiber in your breakfast cereal than AT&T put in the communities over these last 25 years. And this is the exact same message now, 25 years later; to eliminate ‘outmoded’ regulation and increase investment and…

A Fiber Optic Wire Is Required Every 500 Feet as Well.

Finally, the big lie here is that all of these cell sites require a fiber optic wire attached to them. Thus, 5G wireless is a ‘bait-and-switch’. Boston, MA was told it was getting FiOS fiber to the home, not wireless.

Francis Shammo, former-Verizon EVP, told the investors a different story at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, September 22, 2016:

“But it’s going to be a fixed broadband wireless solution.

“And if you think about the cost benefit of that, today, if you think about FiOS and what it costs me to connect a premises to FiOS. I have to lay the fiber down the street, but then I also have to then connect the home, go into the home, make sure the wiring is right, install the boxes, install the routers.

“If you think about 5G, you put the fiber down the road, which is what we’re doing in Boston. Then all of the labor and the expense of drilling up your driveway connecting the OT to your house and all the labor involved with that, all that goes away, because now I can deliver a beam into your — into a window with a credit card size receptor on it that delivers it to a wireless router, and there’s really no labor involved and there’s no real hardware other than the router in the credit card. So the cost benefit of this is pretty substantial, at least, we believe it is.”

So kids, (or investigative reporters), if you take a trip and visit the FCC, stop in at Brendan Carr’s office and ask him:

  • Is your 5G plan really just a rehash of ALEC model legislation?
  • How did you end up presenting this ALEC bill in Indianapolis?
  • How, exactly, are rural areas served if the wireless service can’t get go farther than a few football fields without more fiber optic wires attached?
  • What commitments did you get from the carriers that if you change the laws that the companies will build anything?
  • Isn’t it a conflict-of-interest to work to help your previous clients vs the American public?
  • Finally, where is the investigation into all of the previous fiber optic deployments and all the money that was charged to local phone customers — even those in rural areas or those low income families?

Oh, and throw in — if the companies have to have a fiber optic wire within a few hundred feet of someone’s home or office, why aren’t they giving the people fiber optics instead of some wireless service that doesn’t really exist yet, except in tests or controlled deployments?