We’ve come to believe that the road to connectivity lies wrapped in fiber, glorious thinner-than-hair optical fiber shimmering, gleaming, binding us together as one.

Ah, how we admire the fiber optic threads so delicate and yet so strong — threads that can take a lead weight to the sea floor, flow with the pressure and power of the ocean, and still zip high-resolution images from a camera in the depths without breaking stride. We gaze at fiber bundles that transport data from one dot on the globe to another in mere milliseconds, moving more information in the blink of an eye than we once carried on ships in a year.

Ah yes, fiber as a medium, fiber as a technology, fiber as a tool to send our words and images in flight through the power of light … fiber optics feel almost magical and mystical. Not to mention that we sound wicked smart when we use fiber in conversation — not as in “I ate shredded wheat for breakfast because my tummy needs fiber” but rather, “Fiber defines the future of telecommunication.” We can pronounce it, remember it and say it with certainty.

Just one wrinkle, of course, your mileage may vary greatly based on the electronics with which you connect at the end points of said fiber and the service operator you use. And in reality, only a limited number of people have a physical connection to physical fiber at all. Running fiber can quickly turn into an expensive proposition and for all its promise, doesn’t reach everyone and won’t reach everyone. Full stop.

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But is that really so bad? Not all applications require fiber to get the job done and the path to broadband might be paved in other ways. As the quest for “fiber to the home” has taken on an almost-mythic quality of its own, saying this aloud might sound somewhat heretical, and yet I can’t help but wonder if we’ve fallen so in love with a concept that we’ve forgotten the pragmatics of what we want to accomplish.

History holds many examples of this. One of the most famous, of course, rides the rails and fell off the rails. Pundits like to point to the railroad industry, noting that it liked trains so much it thought it operated train companies while in reality, it operated a transportation business. The business goal didn’t lie in big shiny engines, but in moving people and goods from point A to point B. Trains might have offered a sexy tool, but were merely a means, not an end. While the railroads paid homage to their favorite technology, other companies disrupted the market. Trains might be a great feature, but in the end, the benefit of lower-cost transportation won out.

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This year we’ve seen the emergence of something called 5G Home Internet. Catchy name, huh? For reasons I’ve never figured out, telecom just adores calling iterations of technology generations, as if it were settling a new planet or something. All 5G means is “fifth-generation wireless network” — i.e., the latest and greatest tech implementation of through-the-air data transmission.

Most simply put, this implementation uses higher radio band frequencies than previous ones, enabling faster speeds. Most of what you’ve probably heard about so far are 5G mobile networks (and the spiffy new phones that support them), but three companies have begun rolling out a fixed location version of this data pathway. Some (but not all) offer service in some (but not all) areas of the Cape.

Verizon represents the long-time telecom player. T-Mobile represents the mobile player reaching into the home. And Starry represents the disrupter, with a slogan that says “Blazing Fast Speeds. Unmatched Service. Happiness Guaranteed.” while declaring “Wireless internet isn’t really magic, but it’s really close.”

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While fiber might sound like the Holy Grail, the awesomeness of fiber only gets awesome if you have access to it. Remember those trains? Turns out not everyone needed a train to move from point A to B. A bus or smaller truck might do the job just fine at a lower cost. Meet the train alternative for broadband, aka wireless broadband.

Fixed wireless 5G service might not be everywhere (yet), but rolling out transmitters and receivers comes at a far lower cost and faster deployment time than stringing fiber on poles or running it in underground conduit. If over the past several decades, our communities had added conduit capacity every time a street got dug up, it might be a different story, but given our baseline, we’d be crazy not to look at fixed 5G as a consumer option. Sure, wireless fixed point internet might have some burps and bumps, but it also brings reasonable speed and that could well win out over a dream of delicious but unattainable fiber.

I’m not saying 5G offers a cure-all … but it does give us a moment to remember what we need: the benefit of strong and affordable bandwidth, no matter which feature/technology/tool happens to enable it. Will you be hearing a lot more about 5G home service? I’m betting we all will.

Teresa Martin of Eastham lives, breathes and writes about the intersection of technology, business and humanity. 

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 5G Home Internet brings broadband to consumers minus fiber optic cable