How shared spectrum connectivity benefits distance learning

Today, more than 9 million students lack proper access to reliable broadband internet at home, which creates obstacles for both the students and teachers. This, coupled with potential learning disabilities, households with multiple students, and parents or guardians with language barriers, creates unprecedented challenges. In January 2020, the Federal Communications Commission authorized commercial use of Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) connectivity, an initiative that broadly opens the use of the 3.5 GHz spectrum band for shared public and private use. This enables commercial users — e.g. school districts — to leverage a vast amount of invaluable underutilized mid-band spectrum. It provides a cost-effective and high-performance connectivity solution to make uncompromised 4G LTE- and 5G-quality connectivity readily available for education buildings, school campuses, and district networks. As a result, schools and universities across the country are looking to provide a private wireless internet network, to be exclusively used by the school district, via shared spectrum connectivity within the 3.5 GHz CBRS band. By deploying a private LTE network for distance-learning, shared spectrum connectivity can provide students and staff access to a more reliable network from their homes — creating a better and more seamless distance-learning experience.

[Alan Ewing is the Executive Director of the CBRS Alliance]