[LINK] Increasing fire threat to vulnerable telecommunications networks

[Tom Worthington]

On 13/1/20 10:54 am, David wrote:

> ... isn't it up to the telcos to plan & pay for these disasters? ...

Yes, but as for-profit organizations, telcos will only provide high 
reliability networks if someone is willing to pay extra for this 
service, or if telcos are compelled to do so by law. The typical 
customer will not willing pay, so either the government has to subsidize 
this directly, or permit a cross subsidy from city customers (as happens 
now with the NBN).

> ... 5G every 100 metres or so doesn't look so good in a bushfire-prone area.

Telcos are not going to provide 5G micro-cells in bushfire prone areas, 
as these are sparsely populated, and so there would not be enough paying 
customers to use them. Instead these customers will get 5G via the same 
cell towers previously used for 4G.


-- 
Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP IP3P http://www.tomw.net.au 
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