Quoted from the Manward Press..
Critical Update on Cellphone Safety By Andy Snyder, Founder
Rooster's Crow It's a victory for the free market. The new FCC commissioner, Michael O'Rielly, is working to eliminate the rules that tell networks how much and what sort of kid-friendly content they must run. The old rules don't work (obviously), and channels not affected by the rules are actually providing better, more popular content. We don't like TV, but we certainly don't like the government telling us what we can watch. It's a win for Liberty. It happened. And many folks aren't happy about it.
The technology is great. The folks who say it will change the way we work, play and do business aren't being hyperbolic.
The 5G technology Verizon just unleashed in Los Angeles is pretty wild.
It boasts web speeds that are some 100 times what we see now. An entire movie can now be downloaded in less than a second. Using the "old" technology - which is still current in most of the country - it could take 10 minutes or more.
With faster download speeds, of course, comes increased bandwidth. Tech junkies are excited by the notion that new 5G technology will allow just about anything to hook into the web and communicate.
It will open the door to all sorts of new technology.
Great. But...
Of course, the rollout in LA this month doesn't come without a few serious concerns.
One of them deals with your health... the other your Liberty.
First, your health...
If the scientific community is still deliberating whether or not traditional cellphone signals are harmful for our bodies... it will be a long time until we see a consensus on 5G signals.
In the simplest terms, this is all one very big experiment. Nobody knows the long-term effects of cellphone radiation.
But they do know the closer we are to the source of the signal, the more danger we're in.
It's why the Federal Communications Commission and major phone makers tell us to never hold our phones directly against our skin.
Yep, but we bet most readers still do it.
That's what has so many folks worried about 5G technology.
The "heavy" signal it relies on can't travel all that far. To overcome the issue, coverage providers are forced to virtually paint regions with antennas.
Get this: Right now, there are about 308,000 wireless antennas spread across the country. That's a lot. But it's nowhere close to the "exponential" growth we're seeing in places like Los Angeles.
Whereas one cell tower can provide coverage for a wide swath of land these days, experts now say that one 5G station will be needed for every dozen homes in urban areas.
That means we're about to see a lot of antennas in a lot of places.
That's problem No. 2.
There's only so much room for all of these antennas. And most of the places companies like Verizon are putting them are owned by, guess who... you.
Are You Getting Paid?
Of course, local municipalities are acting like they're the landlords and are doling out special deals. But it's really the people's real estate that they're renting.
It's stirring up quite a controversy.
And it should.
Many telecom engineers are calling it the "battle of inches." They're fighting to get their shoebox-sized antennas anywhere they can - including on light posts, telephone poles, traffic lights, etc.
Drive through LA and you'll see what we mean.
These "small cell" units will soon be ubiquitous across the American landscape. It's big money for the folks building them (sales are expected to triple by 2021). But local governments are having a tough time figuring it all out.
As usual... they're getting strong-armed.
In this case, it's Uncle Sam doing the knuckle-busting.
There's no doubt that Washington wants America to be the global leader in 5G technology. It's pushing the innovation through while pushing the free market aside.
Again, we'll turn to LA.
The city and its elected representatives should have the right to charge whatever they want for third parties to use their infrastructure, right?
The citizens paid for those streetlights, so they should be able to put any price tag they want on them.
Not according to Washington.
After Verizon and LA worked out a contract, the fine folks at the FCC made their own deal. They said local governments can charge the big boys of the telecom world no more than $270 per installation.
In other words, if Small Town, USA, wants to keep potentially dangerous
5G technology off its streets, it won't be able to do it by pricing carriers out of town.
The FCC rules eliminate virtually all of a municipality's pricing power, which has long been a chief way they've ensured things like this lean in favor of the people.
It's a huge blow to Liberty.
We have no doubt somebody is going to make a slew of money off the deal.
But we're quite worried about the price we'll pay.
This is a story to watch.
We're all guinea pigs... and that's never fun.
Be well,
Andy