Education Broadband Spectrum and LTE - the key to more robust wireless networking for Utah Schools

Overview Introduction to Standards Organizations and Terms Digital Device Deployments Benefits to Rural Education and Inner-City Education Educational Broadband Spectrum The Case for UEN to provide leadership and fixed cost efficiency.

Terms

Digital Deployments Vary by LEA Classroom Based Devices 1:1 Devices Computer Labs

Needs for Garfield County – pointing outside the buildings to 350 households. Single Internet Service Provider (Telco, DSL) $$$. Entire county is split by three major mountain ranges. Mostly Federal Land including both national parks and monuments. Poor cellular coverage – towers are on the peaks and everything is pretty much pointed at Bryce Canyon. My students mostly live in the valleys that do not see the towers. 1:1 Deployment with Chromebooks and iBoss filtering agent. The agent requires at least 2MB down and 256kb up. Students unable to use devices in many areas. Some parents totally off the grid.

Needs for Inner-City School Districts – utilizing bandwidth better inside the schools or between schools. Too much radio pollution (25+ Access points showing up in outer classrooms). Growing areas do not have appropriate infrastructure when the school is ready to open. Large schools require a lot of access points to cover their large user base and there are limited channels. LTE has been developed to scale better than Wi-Fi

Educational Broadband Spectrum LTE Band 41 Deployed in US and Asia. Sprint is the major provider on this band in the US. The U has leased their license to Sprint Source – Band 41 charts from Wikipedia U of U License from FCC Documentation

Some districts have an existing license Leases were given to education prior to 1997 (1-way TV) Many leases were sub-leased when Sprint and Clearwire found a useful business use for the spectrum beyond television. Commercial Carrier(s) who sub-leased spectrum were bypassing the traditional expensive FCC auctions and the program was put on hold. In 2016 only two educational organizations were granted “waivers” and given leases. They had to provide a build-out plan and commit to not sub-leasing the spectrum.

Important LTE/Wi-Fi Network Quote A network with a licensed or incumbent spectrum will be more robust – Ruckus Wireless Engineer

Expanding UETN Leadership Requesting UETN to expand leadership into wireless Leverages strong relationship already established with schools Utilizes and expands existing high-end networking skills. Routing Engineering Security Increases the existing FCC knowledge domain FCC Licensing – goes beyond current microwave licensing Ability to file for licenses on behalf of multiple districts reducing the fixed costs for a single district that are estimated at 10K in legal fees.

Cost Efficiency Fixed Cost of EPC Core – $100,000 for first 1,000 users. Variable Pricing Per User $8,000 for second 1,000 users. Security, Procurement, Management of SIM Cards from a single state source instead of different carrier numbers or sim providers for each district. End User Devices – HotSpots, LTE Integrated Chromebooks, Telephone Devices can be purchased better on a statewide level than negotiating by districts.

E-Rate E-Rate does not currently cover Private LTE Networks. There is a lobby underway to get this new category approved in 2018 for Category 2 but it is just a proposal.

Questions and Answers

Supplement: Garfield County heat map sample Heat mapping with ESRI and addresses from student database. Service Range of 2 miles (up to 9 miles if EBS Licensed)