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Bandwidth Grows Along With Funding Concerns

By: Diane Rapley

1/1/2009

Dollars for expanding online usage are not keeping up with demand

As internet usage in schools shifts into high gear, it appears that students may find the going slow and teachers may shy away from internet-based tools unless they are sure that bandwidth capacity will be sufficient, according to the recent America's Digital Schools 2008 survey.

The report describes the bandwidth situation in schools as a good news/bad news story. On the good news side, the average bandwidth per student in the districts surveyed climbed an astounding 123 percent between 2006 and 2007. It appears that the rapid growth of optical-based solutions has allowed some districts to substantially expand data rates at a lower cost per megabit than copper solutions.

Also good news, schools are becoming more aware of potential solutions to maximizing bandwidth. Some are adding bandwidth shaping and metering devices, and some are forging ahead with cable modems or fiberoptic cable. And several promising new wireless technologies such as LTE and WiMAX are appearing on the school horizon.

The bad news is that educators feel they are looking at a bleak funding picture. Fifty-four percent of the districts foresee a problem obtaining sufficient funding regardless of the source (local, state, or E-Rate), and 43 percent foresee a problem with ERate funding levels. (E-Rate funding will probably remain capped at $2.25 billion a year, so as demand goes up, the percentage of reimbursement will go down.) In addition, 36.7 percent of districts foresee a problem obtaining sufficient bandwidth regardless of their ability to pay. Installing new fiber or copper may be uneconomical, forcing them to move to fixed wireless microwave solutions.

Without adequate connectivity, schoolbased internet activities will be in jeopardy for some time to come. Sixty-seven percent of the districts surveyed in ADS 2008 reported that they are using an application-restriction policy to conserve bandwidth, including banning streaming video. An interesting demographic variation shows that suburban districts are significantly more likely than urban districts to place restrictions on applications such as streaming video.