Providing Broadband to Rural America: How Educators with EBS Can Make the Difference

In 2008, Northern Michigan University (NMU) elected to tackle the lack of adequate broadband access in its community head-on. With over 8,000 notebook computers assigned to its students, NMU launched an aggressive plan to construct the nation’s first Educational Broadband Service (EBS) WiMAX network. To make it work, NMU turned to the Broadband Division of the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau for assistance securing an EBS spectrum license needed for WiMAX operation. Our success captured the attention of other educators, especially those with one-to-one computing programs in the region who faced similar challenges with home broadband access. Ultimately, the NMU network will cover 21,548 miles of rugged, rural terrain, connecting previously unserved and underserved communities throughout the Upper Peninsula.  Simply put, without EBS, NMU’s network could not have been built and subscribers throughout northern Michigan would likely have remained on the wrong side of the digital divide. 

[Fritz J. Erickson is President of Northern Michigan University.]