FIX COASTSIDE TELECOMMUNICATIONS & TRANSPORTATION

op-ed

Comments

[Carl May]

This effort is decades overdue. I could not even meet some deadlines or otherwise conduct my photo agency from HMB (19 years) or Pacifica (20 years) competitively due to lack of fast internet availability. I would have to drive to San Francisco for large uploads to clients, who could not understand why my offices were so primitive just a hop from Silicon Valley. Relying on the big fiber companies is a naive, hopeless waste of time and effort. They are in it for profit, not service, and will drag their heels on any place that will not generously reward their stockholders and executives.

Selfishly, another benefit would be a more secure system for many kinds of communication, including cellular, getting us away from some of the BS used to justify the repeatedly destructive development and "maintenance" activities for the towers on Montara Mountain. Another avenue to explore to avoid some of the mountain-wrecking excuses that place concern for the towers above all other considerations is satellite internet for critical communications; that is already the mode for many more remote places around the world where ground systems are sketchy or nonexistent.