PHANTOM’S FINAL WORD

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.

By the PHANTOM – Broadcasters are in a different situation from us. That difference arises from the way that economics work in their part of the infrastructure. Broadcasters own nothing in the viewers’ homes.

By the PHANTOM – Now any decent marketing type will tell you that it is a whole lot cheaper to keep a customer than it is to acquire a new one. The reason is that you spend so much moolah on getting a new customer — advertising, installation, introductory discounts, and so on ad nauseam.