Founder & Principal of Tantra Analyst, a tech industry consulting firm, with 20+ years of experience working for Qualcomm, Ericsson & AT&T.
The dark days of the pandemic exposed the glaring educational digital divide and how a substantial portion of students lack sufficient internet access, jeopardizing their ability to participate in online education. Despite many efforts, the challenge still persists.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 2021, 22% of children whose parents had less than a high school education did not have internet at home. Unless addressed holistically, the divide could widen, especially as remote learning becomes an integral part of education and advanced learning techniques like extended reality (XR) require more reliable connectivity.
I think it’s important for school administrators and business leaders, particularly those in education or within its supply chain, to understand the ways to build and deploy more reliable internet networks as a part of their investments and strategies.
Bridging The Digital Education Gap With Private Networks
I see 5G private networks, together with fixed wireless access (FWA) technology, emerging as a potent, cost-effective and sustainable solution to bridge the digital divide in education.
Private networks deployed on school premises have the ability to provide cellular coverage to the homes of large numbers of students living in the surrounding areas. In-home Wi-Fi connectivity via mobile hotspots (Mi-Fi) and FWA terminals (aka customer premise equipment) (CPE) can allow students to reliably connect their devices to the private network and complete coursework from home. I believe that private networks can be particularly effective in economically challenged areas where public broadband carriers may not have adequate coverage.
Successfully proving the viability of the concept, roughly 40 such private networks have already been deployed by Kajeet. Major cellular infrastructure providers such as Samsung and many other smaller players are also building private networks for schools. Research by my company shows that the total cost of ownership (TCO) of deploying a private network can be up to seven times lower (download required) than other options.
Post-Pandemic Shift And Funding Challenges
Following the pandemic, there’s been a continued interest in hybrid education, combining traditional in-person instruction with online learning. Today, both students and educators recognize the value of online learning, which allows students to learn at their own pace. A recent study of 10 U.S. states revealed that enrollment in remote schools rose on average 176% between 2021 and 2022, even when in-person schools opened back up.
To help strategically plan and collaborate, I think it’s important for business leaders to account for the many federal, state and local government funding programs available to solve the education digital divide. The CARES Act enacted in response to Covid-19 has distributed $30.75 billion to the U.S. Department of Education. The E-Rate Program, governed by the FCC, has provided discounts to assist most schools and libraries in the country. Similarly, the California K-12 High-Speed Network (K12HSN) provides high-speed internet access to California schools. It is extremely important that these funds be invested in solutions that are cost-effective and provide long-term solutions to schools.
How To Maximize Access Using Private Networks
One of the quickest solutions is to utilize government funds to buy subsidized broadband subscription plans from public mobile network operators (MNOs). But there are shortcomings—for example, it might be hard to find adequate coverage or affordable plans in many economically challenged areas. Even if they are available, this is a temporary solution that relies on continued government funding. I believe that private networks, on the other hand, can be a long-term and sustainable solution.
Building a school private network is a multi-step process. On the network side, it typically involves deploying a handful of 5G small cells on the top of school district buildings. These provide adequate coverage in and around the school, typically where students live. A compact core network to connect to the internet and operations and maintenance system for managing subscriptions, access, content control, etc. is also needed.
On the user side, every student home must be equipped with mobile hotspots or FWA CPEs. These connect to the private network on one end and provide Wi-Fi coverage in the homes on the other. Students use their devices to connect to the mobile hotspots of FWA over Wi-Fi and access the school’s intranet and internet. If available, students can use connected PCs with integrated 4G/5G connectivity, smartphones and other cellular devices to directly connect to the school’s private network.
FWA CPEs are especially helpful for students in hard-to-reach areas where the signal from the school’s private network may not reach. They can be mounted outdoors to provide robust and reliable connectivity.
Over the past years, deploying and managing cellular networks has become less complex. The deployment costs have also decreased significantly, thanks to the advancements in small cells. I predict that the strong industry traction for 5G enterprise private networks will further improve the cost structure.
Similarly, managing these networks has become straightforward and can even be handled by the school’s IT staff. The most significant advantage of private networks is their typical ten or more years of lifespan.
Technologies That Power Private Networks
Using the latest connectivity technologies is critical to provide students with the best online educational experience. As 5G continues to expand, school private networks are being updated, and newer Wi-Fi technologies like Wi-Fi 7 are being deployed. Thanks to their gigabit speeds, lower latency and high capacity, I see these technologies enabling more use cases. Advanced tools to look out for include augmented, virtual, mixed and extended reality (AR/VR/MR/XR). These tools can help further enrich the learning experience for students. In fact, there is significant research to illustrate that students have much higher information retention when receiving instruction through such interactive visual tools.
To conclude, the need to solve the digital divide is more important than ever. Businesses can help bridge this divide by investing and helping schools implement the right technologies and products (small cells, fixed wireless access devices, Wi-Fi networks, laptops). I urge organizations and business leaders in education and children’s welfare sectors to follow these advancements and seriously consider private networks as a way to bridge the digital divide.
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