CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) and EducationSuperHighway today released to the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) a an estimate of the additional E-rate funds necessary for robust local area network (LAN), Wi-Fi, and core wide area network (WAN) networks that will achieve the Administration¹s ConnectED vision.
The joint analysis estimates a cost of $800 million per year to equip all schools with adequate internal connections by 2018.
The analysis reads:
[B]y combining our estimates of the equipment schools need for robust LAN, Wi-Fi, and core WAN networks, the cost of that equipment, and the current readiness of school networks, the LAN / Wi-Fi ConnectED Cost Model estimates the baseline funding that will be required to achieve the ConnectED goal of ubiquitous wireless networks supporting 1:1 digital learning. Specifically, the model projects that schools will require approximately $2.9 billion of E-rate subsidies over the next four years to upgrade their LAN, WAN, and Wi-Fi networks. Assuming that libraries add an additional 10% to the upgrade cost, we arrive at a total E-rate subsidy requirement of approximately $3.2 billion or $800 million per year for the next four years.
Read the full report here.
