4 ways private LTE supports learning today–and tomorrow

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to the disruption of a range of uniquely vital vertical sectors. This is especially true for K-12 and higher education as schools, colleges, and universities have been forced to close in order to slow the spread of the virus and find alternative, but technologically accessible, ways to reach students–literally.

With students, teachers and lecturers confined to their offices, homes, and dorm rooms to study and teach, many colleges and universities have come to realise that existing connectivity infrastructure just isn’t up to par. They may not understand why, but they know what they need. Question mark is: where to find it, and what to ask for?

Until 2019, really, the traditional means of acquiring connectivity via public or private Wi-Fi has demonstrated limitations, including an inability to efficiently cover large campuses and wide areas, and the dearth of offering security assurances schools and universities need from their networks. All this costs money. Meanwhile, costing even more money, public cellular networks are often a drain to run and, like Wi-Fi, cannot guarantee coverage, capacity, and security requirements, nor provide adequate control of network usage patterns.

So what’s the solution that covers better connectivity infrastructure and efficiency plus cost savings? While there’s been a lot of chatter about just how to solve this, private LTE is one of those buzz phrases that continues to pop up amongst educators and IT administrators, but there’s really been no roadmap. Until now.

Private LTE: What is it and how can it help address the burgeoning challenges in education?

Private LTE is a mobile broadband network deployed to serve a specific organization. It delivers dedicated access with security and managed policies ensuring that only authorized users are allowed to connect with their designated access profiles.