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In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, students have been increasingly learning remotely. However, up to one-quarter of Americans do not have a reliable internet connection at home, with urban and rural areas suffering the most.
People Also Read… Private LTE & CBRS Bridge the Digital Divide
The Solution: A Private LTE Network by BearCom
To address this issue, many school districts received funds for sustainable internet-boosting infrastructure through the government’s Emergency Connectivity Fund.
Texas’s Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD), which is the fifth-largest school district in Texas, used this emergency funding to work with BearCom to create its own private LTE network via a CBRS platform.
Key players in instituting this technology included VP of Network Solutions at BearCom Gary Ash and FWISD CIO Marlon Shears. In addition, BearCom worked with several vendors to cooperate in this undertaking, including CommScope, Athonet, Airspan, and Cradlepoint.
3 Benefits of a Sustainable Private LTE Through a CBRS Network
CBRS, or Citizens Broadband Radio Service, is a platform for creating a private LTE network. It utilizes a previously government-restricted bandwidth on the radio spectrum, making the creation of a private LTE network possible across large areas. Its benefits include:
1. Low Upfront Investment
Creating a private LTE network via CBRS offers a lower upfront investment than other methods.
Now that the bandwidth spectrum is open to non-government entities, there are fewer permits to pay for.
From there, BearCom helped FWISD implement its private LTE by deploying twelve trailer-mounted CBRS eNodeBs (CBSDs) across four sites with the help of partnering vendor Airspan.
The CBSDs are mounted on trailers and rooftops for now, but will migrate to monopole towers. “While we’re operating the network, we’re going through the permitting process to build permanent monopoles,” Ash explained.
This gradual migration makes it fast for students to get access immediately, while a gradual migration plan will keep control within the school district’s hands, which also helps contain costs.
2. Wide Range, Strong Coverage
Within 60 days of beginning this project, BearCom and cooperating vendors brought together a far-reaching core network and got four radio sites online. In addition, the FWISD aims to connect up to 4,000 under-served students during the first quarter of the year.
The Emergency Connectivity Fund also made it possible for FWISD to provide each household with a router and a laptop or tablet, with partnering firm Cradlepoint providing the routers and equipment.
As an added bonus, the devices can only be used to access the school’s fire-walled network. This keeps students on track while learning from home, and it also helps the district protect everyone’s privacy.
3. Private Ownership
The network was designed to favor capital investment rather than ongoing operating expenses, since a windfall of funding was available from a bond and from the government’s Emergency Connectivity Fund. That means:
- The district will own all the network infrastructure.
- The district will host the network core in its data center.
- Everything within the network is locally owned and operated.
On-site data management and eventual school-district-owned monopoles reduce long-term costs: no subscription fees or leases. Once the initial investments are taken care of, the school district can control and maintain its own private LTE network.
Building Sustainable Networks for Texas School Districts
Ash, who has now worked on six private cellular networks for school districts, said the speed at which this project has come online is largely due to a high level of cooperation between BearCom, the city, and the school district.
“It’s very exciting that you have the funding, the network, and frequency, and you have political desire to go solve this problem,” he said. “All those things coming together has kind of made this possible."
Contact BearCom to begin your district’s success story today!
