By The PHANTOM – Well, I’m not sure I have said it in so many words, but we’ve gotten on a fiber optics rant a number of time in this column. It’s one of those topics that is hard to go wrong extolling its virtues.

By The PHANTOM – This time I write about something I’ve never experienced: genius. My favorite saying is by Thomas Edison, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Albert Einstein said the same thing in different words, “Genius is 1 percent talent and 99 percent hard work.”

By The PHANTOM – My Phantom lair is close to the affected places, and for a while was in the predicted path. The lair in which I was raised was in the affected region. In fact there are other phantoms of my generation and following who were affected.

By The PHANTOM – The tension comes from Mrs. Phantom, who wants refined stuff like concerts and plays.

By The PHANTOM – We’ve lost some data subs to the competition because there is competition, and almost everyone who will take broadband is already taking it. The key now is to keep costs down so we can keep prices down, maybe even lower them, something we’re in a better position to do than are the other people.

By The PHANTOM – Heck, 5G is a more bandwidth-efficient technology for wireless data, with some changes in protocol to optimize speed and use of that bandwidth.

By The PHANTOM – Last quarter we talked about the bigger shoehorn of coherent fiber optics as one way to get more out of fiber we already have. You’ll recall (or maybe won’t recall) the simple definition my small brain uses, that we are treating fiber optics more like the way we treat RF-based signals. Rather than simple off-on modulation of the light (akin to the century old RF technique of code transmission), we can change the light carrier in ways that let us get more information through.

By the PHANTOM – So whatzit mean? In my deranged way, I see it as handling optics more like how we handle RF transmission of data. You use a really good laser that has coherent output—it outputs energy continuously and on one frequency.

By the PHANTOM – Man, and you think you got it tough? Me, I really got it tough, working in this ever-changing industry with no sense of how to deal with a haunt in their midst. But how about building an all-fiber system in a sparsely populated area where it is cold.