Along those lines, Emer believes that eventually the telecom companies will be “involved in the whole solution: not just the 3G wireless solution, but how do you provision the end devices? How do you engineer, manage, and monitor the wireless networks? How do you ensure that the students have data access outside of school? There’s an AT&T answer” to all of these questions.
A third thing that will have to change, according to Emer, is the Federal Communications Commission’s e-Rate program, which currently helps schools connect to the internet. “What we need to be doing is having the e-Rate discount the cost of the data plan,” he says. “So, fix the e-Rate, which the telecomm companies can help us to do, so that it addresses the data connection to users.”
The FCC is already funding a study to look at the merits and challenges of funding wireless off-premises connectivity for mobile learning devices. The pilot program will help the FCC decide whether—and how—those services should be eligible for e-Rate support. As part of the pilot program, the FCC authorized up to $10 million for funding year 2011 to support a small number of innovative, interactive off-premise wireless connectivity projects for schools and libraries. As of the December 2010 due date, the FCC had received 85 “seemingly valid” applications.
—J.N.
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