Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Craig Settles, self-ordained “Consultant”, internet radio host, and author of vanity press books, pushed the un-revolutionary idea that Salisbury, N.C. should involve themselves in “aggressively marketing” the Fibrant “debacle” on the city taxpayers dime. In essence Mr. Settles is pushing that Salisbury, already blasted by severe economic woes, a massive city hall cover-up, and stunted city services, should now embark on “aggressively marketing” Fibrant to the city’s taxpayers who wisely avoided the “debacle”. So now the city is going to force its already beleaguered taxpayers to eat the cost of aggressive marketing to themselves.
Would somebody give smelling salts to Mayor Woodson and Maggie Blackwell? Do they have any idea about what is going on with Fibrant or even in the backrooms of City Hall? Certainly they must know about the obstruction of city hall Freedom of Information Act Inquiries and what “mutually terminated” Doug Paris was doing?
Why would anyone listen to Settles, who back in Feb 11, 2011 appeared at the city’s planning retreat for a high consultant’s fee paid by the City of Salisbury, said a 3rd of internet consumers will require 100 Mbps within a year at a special Fibrant gathering. (Few listened because in Fibrant’s history up from November 2010 to July 2014 only three people ever subscribed to Fibrant’s 100 Mbps) Later Mayor Kluttz quickly silenced Mr. Settles and ushered him off the floor when people started asking him hard questions about Fibrant.
Settles in an interview with the Post’s Elizabeth Cook in February of that year gave these ludicrous answers to the Editor’s questions:
“Craig Settles says municipalities like Salisbury that are developing fiber-to-the-home networks need to plan for the future with business customers in mind, not consumers with limited personal needs.” Elizabeth Cook, Salisbury Post
Yoo hoo Craigster–the meat and potatoes of all municipal networks or the mammoth privates is guess what: The everyday consumers. They count for far more money in purchasing internet and TV. Since Fibrant arrived, businesses have fled the Bury. Only three 100 Mbps customers appeared here during Fibrant’s entire tenure prior to going gigabit. Now those three were switched to gigabit.
“Q: One of our readers wants to know what happens when people quit plugging in? Mobile is the new norm. Even the cable guys have to be nervous.
A: You cannot have a wireless network without fiber, because all those access points, those radio transmitters, they have to come back to a wire.
And, the other half of that is, wireless by the physics of wireless can only go so fast. I think it comes out to be about 20 megabits, maybe 30 megabits per second, and you physically cannot get a reliable connection any faster than that. Some miracle could always happen down the road, but wireless is governed by the laws of physics. So it is not about a product, per se.” Elizabeth Cook, Salisbury Post
I don’t know where Settles was using a dowsing rod for wireless science. It wasn’t on this planet. Some physicists back in 2011 were already predicting a gig could theoretically could be sent through the air. FACT: This year in China they demonstrated that 10.53 gigabytes per second could be sent through the air. Now any mom and pop private can do without fiber optic period. It’s expected that even 10.53 gigabytes wireless will be exceeded.
If City Hall wants a dose of hardboiled reality I will appear at a special planning séance and offer some real expertise. Dump off Fibrant to a mom n’ private or recreate Fibrant into a cooperative similar to Yadtel. Get somebody who can run it from right here. Maybe when the state takes over Salisbury as its legal guardian they can pull in responsible and ethical leadership.
The Fibrant nightmare will increase in 2015 when Time Warner Cable turns on TWC Maxx super-high-speed in Salisbury at cheapo prices along with 10 gig X 10 Gig business class. U-Verse also will go a gig in the Charlotte region which includes Salisbury. Poor Fibrant is about to be turned into a nuclear shadowgram on MLK. And DirecTV and DISH will continue blasting away at the TV market. And more and more people are practicing TV cord cutting by using rabbit ear antennas and IPTV devices like ROKU 3, Apple TV, and XBMC boxes.
Hey gang, Fibrant is falling further and further behind at great expense to the city tax and utility payers. The ball game is over for Fibrant and very likely the city of Salisbury.
Fibrant is a flea in a high-intensity microwave oven when compared with the kind of over-the-top SUPER MARKETING the big boys do like Time Warner Cable, AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV, and DISH. These outfits take care of biz. Fibrant has no chance against these monsters. They have and will eat Fibrant alive. The big boys fill the internet, TV, newsmedia, email boxes, and mail boxes daily with an ever changing variety of Madison Avenue aggressive marketing. They created the concept and they will batter Fibrant from every angle.
People who really want to see Salisbury eventually come back to life in a few years, best quickly drop Fibrant, to force the city to unload this ballast. Fibrant is a proven death warrant for a city being shellacked by violent crime, 28% soaring poverty, and poorly performing schools.
