Demand for wireless Internet paying off for schools

An ambitious plan to blanket the country with wireless Internet access has an unlikely beneficiary: public and private schools. For nearly 20 years, five California State University campuses in the Los Angeles area have banded together to broadcast live courses over public airwaves that were long ago set aside by the federal government for distance learning. It hasn't been simple. The spectrum isn't as good as commercial TV, and until the late 1990s it required bulky rooftop receivers that needed a clear line of sight to broadcast towers on Mt. Wilson or Modjeska Peak. But technological advances have made the airwaves easier to use -- and much more lucrative to hold. For Cal State Los Angeles, Long Beach, Dominguez Hills, Fullerton and Pomona, as well as schools and religious institutions around the country, holding a license to the spectrum as the wireless industry expands has been like finding a winning lottery ticket in a dresser drawer. A $14.5-billion consortium of big-name companies, including Sprint Nextel Corp., Clearwire Corp., Google Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc., wants to use the spectrum to deliver high-speed Internet access nationwide. During the last few years, Sprint and Clearwire have been cutting deals with educational institutions. They have about 1,400 long-term agreements with public and private school districts and with community colleges and universities to lease some of the airwaves for their proposed WiMax network.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-schools20-2008may20,0,3563253.story
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