WiMAX Market & Business Assessment: Access, Affordability, and Applications for Education

Overview

This is a very unique report as it focuses on the three A's (Access, Affordability, and Applications) when considering a WiMAX deployment. The author leverages his real-world experience of deploying a large scale WiMAX system for a major metropolitan educational institution to instruct others about the many opportunities for WiMAX in education. Not only is this a valuable resource for those seeking business drivers for WiMAX, his method of evaluating using the 3A's can be used for any purpose to evaluate deployment issues and options.

Written by subject matter expert, Frank Ohrtman, a consultant on multiple WiMAX projects in US and abroad and author of WiMAX Handbook: Building 802.16 Wireless Networks and WiMAX in 50 Pages, this publication provides an easy-to-understand process for assessing the parameters for a school district-wide WiMAX deployment (access, affordability and applications). It provides case study analysis based on project in progress in Palm Beach County, FL of TV over WiMAX, "controlled" Internet access, school financing/savings

The reader may use the author's unique approach to the 3A's of WiMAX as a process and framework to determine feasibility and launch plan for any potential WiMax project or application-driven deployment.

Key Findings

• One-to-one computing (one laptop per student) is a powerful market driver for the deployment of WiMAX as a wireless broadband access technology
• School districts could provide broadband wireless internet/intranet access for their students at home for as little as $40 per student in capital expenditure of $1/month per student in operational expenditures
• WiMAX-enabled laptops may be the only way for public schools to comply with federal mandates in education (NCLB, ATTAIN)
• WiMAX provides a low-cost means for crossing the digital divide
• The WiMAX in Education market could be $1.8 billion by 2015

A school district can equip each student with a WiMAX enabled laptop extending the school intranet's content and application to the student at home for less than 10% of what a public school district receives in annual federal money per student alone (before state and local funding)

Target Audience

WiMAX vendors: this will prove to be a very lucrative niche market for those willing to focus on it and adjust their sales and marketing strategy accordingly

Laptop vendors: They will sell many more laptops more quickly if the laptops can be networked to the school intranet or Internet via a low-cost WiMAX network.

Computer chip vendors: 45 million public school students using WiMAX-enabled laptops will sell a lot of chips.

Network devices vendors: WiMAX deployments to schools will sell a lot of routers, servers and other devices.

Carriers: new technologies such as WiMAX may disrupt their traditional business and how to "turn the retreat into a parade"

Educators: How can the instructional yield from one-to-one computing be multiplied using WiMAX?

School administrators: What is WiMAX and why is it so important to instruction?

State/Federal/School finance professionals: provides strategies in ;aying for multi-million dollar WiMAX deployments

Table of Contents

This publications includes four working Excel spreadsheets:

• Lease calculator
• Cost of laptop and WiMAX as Percentage of Annual Student Allocation
• Pay for WiMAX Through Savings on Telecom and Textbooks
• Pay for WiMAX Through Savings on Tutors and Travel Time

Main Body of Report

Introduction: Technology to the Kid via One-to-One Computing and WiMAX

Technology to the kid AND the classroom

One-to-One Computing and Federally-mandated Technology Literacy

The School Intranet: The Value Statement for Networked One-to-One Computing

Converging One-to-One Computing and School Networks

Extending the School Network via Wireless

Technology to the Kid: At school or at home

Market Drivers for the WiMAX-enabled One-to-One Laptop

Government mandates

Private vs. public networks

The 3 A's of WiMAX-enabled One-to-One Computing

Access

Why WiMAX?

Objections to WiMAX

WiMAX is not Wi-Fi

WiMAX Components

Relationship of WiMAX Range and Throughput for School Applications

Base Station and Student Density

Fixed vs. Mobile WiMAX

Why backhaul is important

Wireless Backhaul Considerations

Comparisons with Fiber

Spectrum Considerations

Access Conclusion

Affordability

WiMAX is inexpensive relative to other technologies

What does a one-to-one WiMAX-enabled laptop program cost?

Case Study: Palm Beach County School District, Florida

Savings on Existing Expenditures

Telecom and Textbooks

Other Instruction-Related Expenses

School assets

Government mandates-can a school district afford to NOT comply?

Conclusion

Applications

Literacy

Numeracy

Writing

Who benefits?

Parents

Teachers

Hall Monitors and Deans of Students

Administrators

Technical Applications

Textbooks

Video

Voice

Selling to school districts

Gauging the market

Revenue Potential

Extrapolating by student head count

Estimates based on Cahners Report

Estimates based on Sprint Nextel Press Releases

Who should do this?

Schools "roll your own"

Carriers

Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs)

WiMAX Service Providers

How to sell to schools

Long sales cycles

Facilitate across departments

Need to compete in RFI/RFQ/RFP processes

Need to partner with other vendors

Establish marketing intelligence database

Aggregate, aggregate, aggregate

Find the money: grants, etc

Get a success story, even if you have to give it away!

Conclusion and Recommendations

Recommendations

Schools and Instructional Institutions

Network Operators and Service Providers

Equipment Suppliers and Systems Integrators

List of Figures

Figure 1 Are networked student laptops inevitable?

Figure 2 Most US schools have computer labs with desktop computers networked to the school's intranet content and applications

Figure 3 Access to a school computer lab is limited geographically

Figure 4 School connectivity for a majority of schools. For many kids, technology ends at the school house

Figure 5 Campus-wide wireless network access with one-to-one laptop programs extends network access campus-wide

Figure 6 WiMAX extends the school intranet content and applications to the student home

Figure 7 A school district-wide WiMAX network connects the student to the school's intranet content and applications

Figure 8 The 3 elements that comprise a telecommunications network: Access, switching and transport (backhaul)

Figure 9 WiMAX performance parameters make it an excellent education technology

Figure 10 Wi-Fi serves a coffee shop or home. WiMAX serves a city

Figure 11 WiMAX nomenclature: base station and subscriber station

Figure 12 WiMAX base station and antenna combinations

Figure 13 WiMAX access or subscriber devices

Figure 14 Line of sight offers better range and throughput than non line of sight

Figure 15 Link budget illustrated

Figure 16 On campus WiMAX delivers a throughput of multiple megabits per second

Figure 17 A WiMAX-enabled laptop can enjoy a range of one mile with throughput equal to DSL. WiMAX extends student access to the school's intranet content and applications to the student's home

Figure 18 Note populated areas of Palm Beach County, Florida (where the students live) are concentrated on the coast. Compare with figure below for school locations and WiMAX coverage

Figure 19 Placing a WiMAX base station ate each of Palm Beach County Schools 172 schools covers a majority of the populated area of Palm Beach County

Figure 20 Backhaul supports WiMAX base stations, which in turn support student at home internet access

Figure 21 Cover Palm Beach County, Florida at a cost of $7 million for 170,000 students = $41 per student in one-time CAPEX or lease for $1/month/student on a 48 month lease or 5% of school district's per student annual annual federal allocation

Figure 22 Satellite imagery of the US at night reveals concentration of population more easily served by WiMAX

Frank Ohrtman has almost 20 years experience in VoIP and wireless applications. He is the president of WMX Systems, LLC, a Denver, Colorado-based consulting and systems integration firm. Mr. Ohrtman learned to perform in-depth research and write succinct analyses during his years as a Navy Intelligence Officer (1981-1991) during which he specialized in electronic intelligence and electronic warfare. He is a veteran of U.S. Navy actions in Lebanon (awarded Navy Expeditionary Medal), Grenada, Libya (awarded Joint Service Commendation Medal), and the Gulf War (awarded National Defense Service Medal).

His telecommunications career began with selling VoIP gateway switches for Netrix Corporation to long distance bypass carriers. He went on to promote softswitch solutions for Lucent Technologies (Qwest Account Manager) and Vsys (Western Region Sales Manager). His consulting clients include national governments and tier one telephone companies.

Mr. Ohrtman is a Gerson Lehrman Group Scholar (http://www.glgcouncils.com) and serves as Dean of WiMAX for Applied Learning Solutions (http://www.e-als.com). He is a regular blogger and contributor to WiMAX.com (http://www.wimax.com) and annual presenter at WiMAX World (http://www.wimaxworld.com) as well as local Cisco Users Groups. Mr. Ohrtman serves as an advisor to Bush Telecommunications Pty Ltd and the Rural Broadband Consortium of Australia.

Mr. Ohrtman holds a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications from Colorado University College of Engineering (master's thesis: "Softswitch As Class 4 Replacement-A Disruptive Technology"), a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, from University of Iowa