Tenn. Braces for BEAD as States See Broadband Funding Surge

Wireless Future Project director Michael Calabrese is quoted in a Communications Daily article about state broadband equity, access and deployment, with Communications Daily citing OTI and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition’s report and webinar on the powerful benefits of extending school and library networks into communities to connect low-income students, including Calabrese’s webinar remarks regarding the temporary nature of the FCC’s emergency connectivity fund.

Building broadband “to and through” anchor institutions can sometimes be the best option to reach rural communities, said New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) and the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition in a Wednesday report.

…

SHLB and OTI’s report said deploying “wireless broadband from an anchor institution to the community may … be not only economically rational but in some cases the most cost-effective and financially sustainable option.” Telecom Advisory Services President Raul Katz wrote, “The indefinite purchase of monthly service through a commercial ISP is less cost-effective and financially sustainable than the other deployment options where they are feasible.”

Deployment costs using citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band spectrum “or community Wi-Fi can often be one-fifth or sometimes even one-tenth the cost of purchasing monthly wireless service from a traditional wireless provider,” said SHLB Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen on a webinar Wednesday. That’s important because the FCC’s $7 billion emergency connectivity fund is temporary, said OTI Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese. ECF connected about 7 million students, but unless Congress makes it permanent, “there’s no sustainable solution in sight to close the homework gap,” he said. “It is reopening.”

A school district in Council Bluffs, Iowa, is using a Wi-Fi Network of 700-750 access points on school rooftops and streetlights and poles to provide free wireless throughout the city, said Council Bluffs Community School District Chief Technology Officer John Stile. It gets 50,000 unique connections monthly, with 3,589 different students logging on and transmitting 5.63 terabytes of data last week, he said. The district began deploying the network in 2014. "When the pandemic hit, it was a non-event for us because we were already prepared,” said Stile.

Another school district in Fresno, California, deployed a private LTE network to serve its 75,000 students, said Philip Neufeld, Fresno Unified School District executive officer-technology services. The district had found commercial hotspots didn't work well enough for students, especially in areas of poverty that lacked sufficient coverage, he said. The project chose LTE over Wi-Fi because it couldn’t access city light poles, and tapped CBRS spectrum because the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) band was leased to T-Mobile, he said. Even if fiber is coming, people won’t be able to use it for another four to six years, said Neufeld: Until then, the district’s network will be a critical "bridge."