In an opinion column posted on FoxNews.com, Steve Forbes criticizes federal and state rules “requiring providers to maintain a copper wire infrastructure even though it has become impractical, inefficient and very costly.” In the opinion piece headlined "Copper Wire - A Technology Whose Time Has Passed," Forbes adds, “As copper wire becomes increasingly obsolete across the country regulations must keep pace with the consumer demands of the 21st century.”
He further points to “next-generation wireless and fiber networks” as a more-viable technological and economic alternative to carriers’ old copper plant.
“Traditional copper networks are no longer applicable to the needs and benefits of today’s technologies,” Forbes says. “Regulations should not favor a century-old technology over the most cutting-edge of today’s services.”
He uses the example of the communications-infrastructure rebuilds taking place in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, saying “regulations are currently threatening” the possibility of new fiber and wireless networks by “requiring companies to replace the copper wire networks of yesteryear.”
You can read Steve Forbes’s full commentary on FoxNews.com here.