Letter to the editor: Resident concerned over deploying 5G in Fairfield

To the editor,

To summarize some current local 5G basics:

There are two very different kinds/stages of 5G:

Coming by March 1: Low-band 5G (US Cellular) We're just starting to learn about low-band 5G, it's not the ‘5G' in the news the past couple years. Not likely to come: High-band (millimeter wave) 5G - the ‘5G' in the news the past couple years

Low-band 5G uses the same frequencies and power as 4G LTE that's been here eight years. Instead, 4G LTE and low-band 5G differ in frequency modulation and carrier aggregation. Different telecoms use different varieties of these two techniques, and different terms, in 4G ‘upgrades,' and in low-band 5G. No one knows if low-band 5G is more unsafe than 4G, because it's without visible research, and a publicly available technical description, even upon request.

US Cellular has just finished - without prior notice - deploying a 4G LTE upgrade, calling it 'LTE Advanced.” This is not its low-band 5G, which is planned by March. US Cellular will not say when LTE Advanced began transmitting, or whether it requires the new large arrays on its local towers to operate.

Many experts have said for years that MMwave 5G will remain limited to densely populated areas of large cities. Reason: not enough people to buy enough new required 5G phones to provide enough revenue to build the required costly infrastructure. A Jan. 8 NYT article interviewing major telecoms states, 'Because of the technical limitations of MM wave 5G, we are unlikely to see it deployed nationwide anytime soon (if ever)…”

US Cellular President/CEO Ken Meyers wrote in his Letter to Union Editor (also Jan. 8), 'Our initial 5G deployment doesn't include millimeter-wave spectrum. We have no current plans for millimeter-wave spectrum in Fairfield.”

There's no guarantee that high band MM wave 5G will not come here and most areas of Iowa. Verizon is installing MM wave 5G in portions of Des Moines. US Cellular is not the only telecom, and, could change its mind. But it's unlikely that we'll see MM wave 5G locally, and the potential issues associated with it discussed the past two years.

Most of the approximately 20,000 studies showing harm from cellphones, Wi-Fi, and other wireless radiation were done on 2G and 3G. So no ‘G' is really safe. Cellphones and the current 4G LTE are not really safe. Many experts have great concern about the modulation and interference involved with low-band 5G. So it's not realistic to think we are OK now, and our situation would begin to be unsafe only with MM wave 5G.

There are also wide and growing 5G concerns regarding local control, privacy, and national cyber security.

There are claims of some or many health complaints beginning when US Cellular's new arrays went up in Fairfield (c. Nov. 23). Without knowing the number of people who have complained, their testimonials, and their streets of residence, these claims can't be considered substantiated or certain.

More info available: info@fiberiowa.com.

Einar Olsen, Fairfield