1) Fiber optic cable is much, much better than any wireless means can be — it is faster, more efficient, it carries more data, it is more secure and it is safer. I still haven’t found out about the conversion issue, but if there is a demand for FOC to and throughout the home, I’m sure the conversion issue will be addressed. Many experts are strongly supporting municipality-owned FOC networks that can provide internet that is far superior to 5G while making money for the community. Why be tied to a telecom that cares nothing about your health or security? Profit is their only concern.
Why Fiber is Vastly Superior to Cable and 5G
“… arguments by the U.S. telecommunications industry that 5G or currently existing DOCSIS cable infrastructure are more than up to the task of substituting for fiber have confused lawmakers, reporters, and regulators into believing we do not have a problem. In response, EFF has recently completed extensive research into the currently existing options for last mile broadband and lays out what the objective technical facts demonstrate. By every measurement, fiber connections to homes and businesses are, by far, the superior choice for the 21st century. It is not even close….
The American story of broadband deployment is a tragic one where your income level determines whether you have competition and affordable access. In the absence of national coverage policies, low-income Americans and rural Americans have been left behind. This stands to get worse absent a fundamental commitment to fiber for everyone. Our current situation and outlook for the future like did not happen in a vacuum—policy decisions made more than a decade ago, at the advent of fiber deployment in the United States, have proven to be complete failures when it comes to universal access. EFF’s review of the history of those decisions in the early 2000s has shown that none of the rationales have been justified by what followed.”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/why-fiber-vastly-superior-cable-and-5g
2) Here is the industry view of 5G’s potential, where IoT means (among other things) Internet of Thoughts. There is a lot of technical details that will appeal to the techies in our group. The presentation link has some information/projections that I found interesting, e.g. in “Session 2, Mobile” the role of the “smart phone” is described as being critical to just about every part of the grid. We need to understand what is being planned in order to educate our friends, family, politicians, etc
Heterogeneous Integration Framework
https://eps.ieee.org/images/files/HIR_2019/HIR1_ch12_5G.pdf
The reports in total can be found here:
https://eps.ieee.org/technology/heterogeneous-integration-roadmap/2019-edition.html
All presentations can be found here:
3) An article about 5G in Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s newsletter which is devoted to children’s health. This will reach many people who are new to this topic and, hopefully, will be concerned.
(click on photo to enlarge)
5G and Wireless Technology Health Effects
“5G is the infrastructure for the internet of things and is intended to wirelessly connect 20 billion more devices and for that purpose, deploy 800,000 more cell towers and launch 20,000 satellites which will exponentially increase our exposure to this harmful radiation.
The deployment of the 800,000 5G “small” cell antennas on poles near every few homes has begun and is progressing quickly. Most of these antennas are 4G and some will utilize millimeter wave frequencies. Studies show profound bio-effects from millimeter waves as well. Federal laws and FCC regulations enabled this forced deployment by removing any barriers, preempting municipal authority, and giving the wireless industry almost unlimited access to our public rights of ways.”
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/5g-and-wireless-technology-health-effects/
Letters:
Please read from the bottom up.
From: Bob McKechnie (name given with permission)
Subject: Re: Phone conversation this morning
Date: October 16, 2019 at 1:35:35 PM PDT
To: “Douglas Routley.MLA” <Douglas.Routley.MLA@leg.bc.ca>
Hi Sarah –
Thanks for your perseverance with this.
I now understand from what you say that per the Tariff it’s legally ok for BCH to be giving its customers a choice between accepting a smart meter they don’t want (for all sorts of imo perfectly valid reasons) and disconnection from the BC grid, and in particular is justified (again per the Tariff) in not restocking analog meters for those such as myself that don’t under any circumstances want a smart meter.
I find it hard to believe the Ministry (I presume EMPR) claims the government can’t override these decisions or in any way alter the AMI program put in place by the Liberals in 2010. That to me means, more generally, that if an Act is passed and it later turns out to be problematic the government can’t do anything about it . . . a hopefully preposterous situation! Therefore I conclude that the Ministry believes the AMI program is working just fine (doing all the things US promoters and BCH said it would, saving ratepayers $’s, reducing electricity consumption, promoting green energy, etc) and that none of the numerous problems reported all over the world (fire non-safety, emr, short lifetimes, accuracy all over the map, hack-ability, surveillance, etc) are of any significance.
Accordingly I would like you or Doug to put me in touch with someone at the Ministry who will be open to listening to information that contradicts its belief that all is well with the smart meter program. And asap please, as I am still under threat of having to choose between a meter I know can burn my house down and being disconnected from the grid . . . neither of which I want to do.
To help you get me a foot in the door, please inform the Ministry that the smart meters BCH wants everyone in the province to have weren’t signed off on for fire and electrical safety by CSA, nor by any BCH professional engineer, nor by the BCUC, nor by any other regulatory body . . . and furthermore that, despite, what BCH says, they do indeed catch fire and burn houses down. To back both these statements I (leaving my own fairly well informed laws-of-physics based opinion out of it) have attached a compilation of smart meter problems made last July by a US researcher, and a well-researched report by Sharon Noble that shows BCH’s claims that smart meters are perfectly safe are unfounded – http://sios.ca/SMFireReport/SuperReportSmartMetersKW.pdf.
Bob McKechnie
*****************
On Sep 30, 2019, at 2:10 PM, Routley.MLA, Douglas <Douglas.Routley.MLA@leg.bc.ca> wrote:
Good Afternoon Bob,
You are correct in that looking at the original application it does appear to show that eventually all customers would be on smart meters (or digital radio off meters) As I linked in one of my previous meters this section below in particular talks about how the analogue meters would be handled. It would appear that as soon as the application was accepted that BC Hydro would no longer purchase analogue meters and instead when installing smart meters would keep stock of the analogue meters removed from people’s homes during that installation, to be used for those who opted to stay on an analogue meter. BC Hydro would continue to switch out expired analogue meters, for ones they had in this stock, until they ran out of stock or until they had all expired. So if you opted to keep your analogue meter in 2014, then your meter expired in 2016 they would come and switch it with another one (which would be from stock collected when switching other meters), this continued up until (as far as I can tell) last fall when they ran out of stock and started notifying customers of the need to switch out their expiring meters with a smart, or radio off, meter.
3.4.2.5 Legacy Meter Exchange – Meter Seal Expiry
“Of the approximately 60,000 legacy meters which remain in the field, about 40 per cent have a Measurement Canada seal that has either expired or will expire at the end of calendar 2013. A further 14 per cent will expire by the end of calendar year 2014. The seals on all existing legacy meters will have expired by the end of calendar 2021. Due to the relatively low number of remaining legacy meters, combined with the relatively large number of potential sample groups, sample testing is not viable for most of the sample groups. As a consequence, legacy meters remaining in service through the Meter Choices Program will be taken out of service in the year of Measurement Canada seal expiry.
An inventory of legacy meters will be developed by using meters with non-expired Measurement Canada seals removed from customer premises that currently have a legacy meter and the customer chooses either a radio-off meter or a smart meter. As the seals on legacy meters remaining in service expire, BC Hydro will exchange these legacy meters as long as there are replacement meters available in inventory. The length of time legacy meters will be available ultimately depends on how many customers choose the legacy meter option. It is estimated that replacement meters will be available until 2018 assuming that 5,000 customers ultimately choose the legacy meter option.”
In another email you had referenced the government news release from July 2013 where the energy minister is quoted as saying “No one would be forced to take a smart meter”, ironically a little further down that news release under “Quick Facts” is this paragraph which suggests that eventually everyone would have to switch to a smart meter or a digital meter with radio off:
“Customers who choose to keep their existing installed analogue meter will be able to keep them until the meter breaks down, their Measurement Canada seal expires or they relocate. When the account holder changes, the analogue meter will be replaced with a standard smart meter or a digital meter with the radio off.” https://archive.news.gov.bc.ca/releases/news_releases_2013-2017/2013MEM0004-001125.htm
I understand this situation is frustrating but it is my understanding through my contact with the Ministry that we are not able to override these decisions, or the program put in place in 2013. I believe this would include things like requiring BC to purchase meters that are no longer compatible with their systems, but I will certainly pass along your suggestions.
Regards,
Sarah M Miller | Constituency Assistant | Doug Routley, MLA Nanaimo-North Cowichan
bcgeu
Nanaimo #112- 50 Tenth Street | P: 250.716.5221 | F:250.716.5222
Ladysmith #1-16 High Street | P: 250.245.9375 | F:250.245.8164
Sharon Noble, Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice — it is conformity. ~ Rollo May