Better for the Future
SafeG™ offers a vision for a safe, reliable alternative to the dangerous future which 5G would create. SafeG is not a single product or service, but a framework for an internet and telecommunications system that respects our health, our privacy, our security and our right to choose what is best for ourselves and our communities.
We define SafeG as follows:
SafeG means safe, fast, reliable, secure internet and telecommunications services brought into our homes and businesses by wired technology. It means technology that safeguards our health, privacy and security and that evolves over time with the goal of reducing exposure to harmful wireless radiation.
The critical element that characterizes SafeG—wired connections to the home or business—is already available to a large number people around the world from existing internet and telecommunications providers, especially in advanced economies. If we focus on extending availability and improving speed and capacity, we can have a safe system that keeps up with changes in technology and provides all the services we desire. But that will happen only if we demand it as consumers and citizens.
The definition of SafeG recognizes that consumers will drive innovation through demand for safe wired technologies—innovation that will make our internet and telecommunications services safer, more convenient, more secure and more reliable. That demand will incentivize manufacturers and service providers to create ever more convenient wired services and wired devices for homes, shops, businesses, and even public spaces.
Better for Health
In an ideal world, we’d have access to fast, reliable, secure internet and telecommunications services without endangering our health. But we can have that with the SafeG strategy.
If we embrace SafeG, our exposure to wireless radiation can go down over time as advances in technology make wired devices more convenient to use and so help us avoid unwanted radiation. We’ll have a choice about how much wireless technology we use, and we won’t have to accept passively exposure created by others.
Some may choose to use wireless technology in and around their homes and businesses. While we recommend minimizing exposure to any kind of wireless radiation, if it’s your wireless technology on your property, then you can control whether it’s on or off and for how long. This means, for example, that you can shut it off at night if it is not being used. The important point is that you decide, not a wireless company that douses you with radiation 24/7/365 with little concern for your health.
At the same time we recognize that most wireless systems designed for homes and businesses are vastly overpowered and therefore broadcast into neighboring buildings and outdoor areas while needlessly exposing users in the building to extra radiation. While we favor wired networks in homes and businesses, for those who choose wireless networks, we recommend the use of router cages or “socks” for wireless routers. An alternative is to purchase a router that allows users to turn down the power. Both approaches allow a person to reduce the wireless signal to what is needed to serve the premises only.
Better for Privacy and Security
The simple fact is that wireless communications propagate in all directions through the air from their source. That makes them far more susceptible to interception than wired communications traveling in a wire or cable. Intercepting wired communications directly usually requires access to the physical cables.
Of course, hackers can compromise any system, wireless or wired. But which do you think provides a more inviting target?
Better for Reliability and Performance
Wired connections don’t care whether it’s rain or shine. But for wireless connections precipitation, hills, valleys, buildings, walls and other constructed and natural objects can lower the quality of such connections and even block them entirely. Storms, floods, and fires are far more likely to take down wireless communication equipment than wired which are exceptionally robust in the face of natural disasters and extreme weather.
And, of course, wired connections have much greater capacity and are able to deliver faster and more consistent speeds than wireless.
Better for Local Control
SafeG means local control of critical aspects of the internet and communications infrastructure. It means your local officials work with you and your neighbors to decide what’s best for the community—not a distant, unelected federal agency such as the Federal Communications Commission which has a long history of doing the bidding of the telecommunications industry.
Learn More
Reinventing Wires: The Future of Landlines and Networks — Timothy Schoechle, Ph.D., senior research fellow at the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy, lays out why wired is the future because of its superior speed, capacity, reliability, energy efficiency, security and safety. Published January 2018.
Community-Owned Fiber Networks: Value Leaders in America — This survey of broadband pricing by Responsive Communities, a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, shows that community-built fiber-to-the-home broadband internet service is almost universally less expensive than that built by private companies. Published January 2018.
Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution—and Why America Might Miss It — Harvard law professor Susan Crawford explains why fiber-optic connections are the true basis for an information system that will serve multiple areas of society well as it spurs innovation and new industries.
Community Networks — This site provides resources for those joining the movement to build broadband networks that are directly accountable to the communities they serve. It includes case studies, fact sheets, and video to help leaders make decisions about community-owned networks.