Re: Washington Post Knocks Digital Reception

Bruce Tomlin wrote:
In article <g29cdo11plp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, phil-news-nospam@xxxxxxxx wrote:

The fiber model, once put in place, will far exceed the capability of mobile
even if mobile ends up with all of 470-902 MHz. Mobile cannot be made point
to point with those 3" antennas, so it has to be a shared bandwidth.

A better way to say it is:

OTA = one "infinity" of spectrum

Fiber = one "infinity" of spectrum PER FIBER (even if all you do is modulate wideband analog RF onto it, laserdisc-style)

And that doesn't count that OTA isn't really an "infinite" spectrum since it's divided into a whole bunch of bands that have to be shared in the same airspace. (Though some frequencies can be re-used on a "per cell" basis depending on range.) Nor does that count using WDM on the fiber.

In the long run, the only things OTA has going for it are 1) the air gap, the actual mobility of mobile reception, and 2) the one-to-many model of broadcast. When delivering to a fixed location, the capacity and flexibility of an already laid fiber can't be beat.

It can easily be beat. You are only talking of RF in the open air as if it can not be channeled. You can also use RF in very narrow channels almost like a laser. The technology for doing this is in its infancy as is the spectrum and the amount of spectrum to use it in but it is already in the 10's of Giga-HRz.

In fact laser is OTA. The problem with laser is that it cannot penetrate a cloud of particles like rain or dust. But if you had a lot of connections and lasers were cheap enough then reliability goes up and who needs fiber.

The technology is here, not laser, and is being worked on frantically by all the big boys. In less than five years it will disrupt all we know IMO. It is all really just a matter of price points being reached.

Bob Miller
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