Aarkstore Enterprise asked:


The Obama administration will spend billions of dollars installing new or upgrading existing wireless broadband services for public schools. These provisions are in stark contrast to Federal Communications Commission regulations, which will seize school WiMAX (2.5 GHz Educational Broadband Services) licenses where school districts do not comply with build out requirements for their licenses.

This paper will make the case for WiMAX as the most effective wireless broadband technology for educational services enabling school districts to keep their 2.5 GHz licenses. In a time of economic downturn in the private sector, industry players would be well advised to “follow the money” into major public sector initiatives related to broadband internet services in education.

Major Points in Publication:

* Educational Broadband Services licenses (2.5 GHz) will be forfeited by school districts and other license holders that do not build out networks by May 01, 2011

* School districts holding those licenses are not protected by subletting to large commercial operators (Sprint, Clear, etc)

* Understanding the education technology market (its not the same as enterprise or mobile)

* Why WiMAX is the best technology for this application

* Why WiMAX is the best complement to a one*to*one computing program

* The “3 A’s: Access, Applications and Affordability” of WiMAX in Education

* Breakthroughs in video over WiMAX: HDTV on 1 Mbps WiMAX

* “The 5% Solution”: one*to*one computing and WiMAX for 5% of a school district’s annual per*student allocation

Target Audience

WiMAX vendors: This will prove to be a very lucrative niche market for those willing to focus on it and adjust their sales and marketing strategy accordingly

Laptop vendors: They will sell many more laptops more quickly if the laptops can be networked to the school intranet or Internet via a low*cost WiMAX network.

Computer chip vendors: 45 million public school students using WiMAX*enabled laptops will sell a lot of chips.

Network devices vendors: WiMAX deployments to schools will sell a lot of routers, servers and other devices.

Carriers: new technologies such as WiMAX may disrupt their traditional business and how to “turn the retreat into a parade”

Educators: How can the instructional yield from one*to*one computing be multiplied using WiMAX?

School administrators: What is WiMAX and why is it so important to instruction?

State/Federal/School finance professionals: provides strategies in paying for multi*million dollar WiMAX deployments

Table of Contents :

WiMAX: The Educational Broadband Services Solution

Introduction: Technology to the Kid via WiMAX

Technology to the kid AND the classroom

One-to-One Computing and Federally-mandated Technology Literacy

The School Intranet: The Value Statement for Networked One-to-One Computing

Converging One-to-One Computing and School Networks

Extending the School Network via Wireless

Technology to the Kid: At school or at home

Market Drivers for the WiMAX-enabled One-to-One Laptop

Government mandates

Private vs. public networks

The 3 A’s of WiMAX-enabled One-to-One Computing

Access

Why WiMAX

Objections to WiMAX

WiMAX is not Wi-Fi

WiMAX Components

Relationship of WiMAX Range and Throughput for School Applications

Base Station and Student Density

Fixed vs. Mobile WiMAX

Why backhaul is important

Wireless Backhaul Considerations

Comparisons with Fiber

Spectrum Considerations

Access Conclusion

Affordability

WiMAX is inexpensive relative to other technologies

What does a one-to-one WiMAX-enabled laptop program cost?

Case Study: School District of Palm Beach County, Florida

Savings on Existing Expenditures

Telecom and Textbooks (or is that “flexbooks”?

Other Instruction-Related Expenses

School assets

Government mandates-can a school district afford to NOT comply?

Conclusion

Applications

Literacy

Numeracy

Writing

Who benefits

Parents

Teachers

Hall Monitors and Deans of Students

Administrators

Technical Applications

Video

Distance Learning via Video Conferencing

HD at 1 Mbps?: HD recording and streaming live anywhere, any time

Architecture

Bandwidth

Standards

Figure 21 Field-testing for WiMAX and HD camera with laptop-sized encoder

Cameras

Audio Factors

Echo Cancellation

The Audio Secret Sauce: Compression Algorithms and “wideband”

Textbooks

Voice

Selling to school districts

Gauging the market

Revenue Potential

Extrapolating by student head count

Estimates based on Cahners Report

Who should do this?

Schools “roll your own”

Carriers

Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs)

WiMAX Service Providers

How to sell to schools

Long sales cycles

Facilitate across departments

Need to compete in RFI/RFQ/RFP processes

Need to partner with other vendors

Establish marketing intelligence database

Aggregate, aggregate, aggregate

Find the money: grants, etc

Get a success story, even if you have to give it away!

Conclusion and Recommendations

Recommendations

Schools and Instructional Institutions

Network Operators and Service Providers

Equipment Suppliers and Systems Integrators

List of Figures

Figure 1 Are networked student laptops inevitable?

Figure 2 Most US schools have computer labs with desktop computers networked to the school’s intranet content and applications

Figure 3 Access to a school computer lab is limited geographically

Figure 4 School connectivity for a majority of schools. For many kids, technology ends at the school house

Figure 5 Campus-wide wireless network access with one-to-one laptop programs extends network access campus-wide

Figure 6 WiMAX extends the school intranet content and applications to the student home 10

Figure 7 A school district-wide WiMAX network connects the student to the school’s intranet content and applications

Figure 8 The 3 elements that comprise a telecommunications network: Access, switching and transport (backhaul)

Figure 9 Wi-Fi serves a coffee shop or home. WiMAX serves a city

Figure 10 WiMAX nomenclature: base station and subscriber station

Figure 11 WiMAX base station and antenna combinations

Figure 12 WiMAX access or subscriber devices

Figure 13 Line of sight offers better range and throughput than non line of sight

Figure 14 Link budget illustrated

Figure 15 On campus WiMAX delivers a throughput of multiple megabits per second

Figure 16 A WiMAX-enabled laptop can enjoy a range of one mile with throughput equal to DSL. WiMAX extends student access to the school’s intranet content and applications to the student’s home

Figure 17 Note populated areas of Palm Beach County, Florida (where the students live) are concentrated on the coast. Compare with figure below for school locations and WiMAX coverage

Figure 18 Placing a WiMAX base station ate each of Palm Beach County Schools 172 schools covers a majority of the populated area of Palm Beach County

Figure 19 Backhaul supports WiMAX base stations, which in turn support student at home internet access 32

Figure 20 Cover Palm Beach County, Florida at a cost of $7 million for 170,000 students = $41 per student in one-time CAPEX or lease for $1/month/student on a 48 month lease or 5% of school district’s per student annual allocation

Figure 21 Field-testing for WiMAX and HD camera with laptop-sized encoder

Figure 22 Satellite imagery of the US at night reveals concentration of population more easily served by WiMAX

List of Tables

Table 1 The progression to “one-to-one” computing

Table 2 Comparison of Wi-Fi and WiMAX for school district use

Table 3 Comparison of Wi-Fi and WiMAX

Table 4 Comparison fixed vs. mobile WiMAX

Table 5 Comparisons of wireless backhaul with other options

Table 6 Comparison of wireless vs. fiber optic cable as backhaul solution

Table 7 School WiMAX-related spectrum

Table 8 Comparisons of the costs for technologies for residential internet access

Table 9 Comparisons for monthly internet/intranet access accounts for public school students plus laptop lease as a percentage of annual allocation per student

Table 10 School district operations savings on telecommunications, textbooks, manpower and insurance for WiMAX network

Table 11 Cost savings related to instruction using WiMAX networks

Table 12 Assets a school district may have that a telephone company would have to buy

Table 13 Federal mandates on education where WiMAX-enabled laptops provide a solution

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