NU explains fiber vs. fixed wireless internet service

In a previous article in The Newport Plain Talk, it was reported that Newport Utilities (NU) will no longer be offering fixed wireless service. NU has two forms of internet services, those are fiber and fixed wireless. Some readers were unsure of the difference between fixed wireless and fiber service.

The majority of NU internet customers receive internet through the fiber service. According to NU Vice President of Operations and Technology Chris Calhoun, fiber service provides internet to about 4,000 residences and businesses throughout the NU service area. The fixed wireless internet service served about 250 residences.

He explained that fiber services arrive at your home via fiber and come directly into the house and terminate at an optical network terminal (ONT), which can also double as a WiFi router.

“The fixed wireless service arrives at your house via radio waves and a customer would have an antenna on the side of their home to collect the signal, decipher it and then provide it to the WiFi router inside your home via an ethernet cable,” Calhoun explained. “Fixed wireless internet is very similar to LTE cellular data you use on your phone.”

Late last week the state of Tennessee announced the awarding of another $162.7 million in broadband and digital grants, with Newport Utilities receiving $15.2 million in grants for work in Cocke County.

That makes a total of $715 million that the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has awarded in recent years with the goal of expanding broadband in the state to 689,000 Tennesseans and 275,000 residents and businesses.

Jon Styf of The Center Square also contributed to this report.