Obama to Visit NMU - See First Hand Our Nation's Only Educational Broadband Service (EBS) Network

Tomorrow (February 10, 2011), President Obama will travel to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to see first hand the operation and benefits of Northern Michigan University's (NMU) Educational Broadband Service (EBS "WiMAX") network.

The EBS network allows NMU to better serve the university’s growing commuter and off-campus populations with broadband access to critical course related materials, expand the collaborative efforts between area K-12 schools and NMU students fulfilling student teaching requirements, and continue the development of new wireless services that are critical to NMU's Teaching, Learning and Communication (TLC) technology initiative.

The wireless education network was borne from FCC licensed Educational Broadband Service spectrum which was transitioned back in 2004 from the Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) spectrum. NMU is the only university in the country that has utilized this asset, to this extent, to directly benefit their faculty, students, administrators and surrounding K-12 school systems and the community.

NMU's Teaching, Learning and Communication (TLC) technology initiative marries well with use of this EBS spectrum as the TLC initiative program supplies full-time NMU students with a notebook computer. More than 9,400 students, faculty and staff are ongoing participants in the program.

On campus users are encouraged to use the existing Wi-Fi network while when off campus they can hook into the EBS network to access NMU collaborative educational applications and tools. Each EBS base station can cover up to a 35 mile radius (limited as to topography, line of site) as compared to limited coverage areas of only hundreds of feet using the Wi-Fi interface.

Thousands of educational institutions throughout the country have the rights to the same EBS spectrum that NMU is using. However most of these EBS license holders have leased their spectrum out to Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq - CLWR) in return for cash. The only beneficiaries of these lease deals are Clearwire and the EBS license holder that was originally assigned this spectrum back in the 60's and 70's.

These EBS license holders include anchor institutions in all the communities where we work, go to school and live. The anchor tenants of the EBS spectrum include our state universities and university systems, public community and technical colleges, private universities and colleges, public elementary and secondary school districts, private schools (including Catholic school systems in a number of large metropolitan areas), public television and radio stations, hospitals and hospital associations, and private, non-profit educational entities... most of which have leased to Clearwire.

Clearwire is using the EBS spectrum to build out commercial "WiMAX" services and sub-leasing this asset to Sprint (EVO 4G), Comcast and Time Warner in select markets throughout the United States. They have the rights to ninety percent of the EBS thanks to a ruling by the past FCC, on Election Day 2008, allowing Clearwire to "transfer control of certain licenses, authorizations, and de facto transfer spectrum leases held by Sprint, Clearwire and their subsidiaries to a new wireless broadband company also called Clearwire Corporation (“CLEAR”)".

Things are not going well for Clearwire. They have burned through $3.2 billion, and another $1.5 billion provided by investors Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner, Google, Intel and Bright House Networks.

They are looking for more money -- thus rumors are surfacing surrounding T-Mobile acquiring EBS spectrum from Clearwire for another $2 billion. Clearwire is also paying out $290 million per year in spectrum lease expense with little revenue coming in from a small wholesale subscription base.

On December 31, 2010 the Founder and CEO of Clearwire since 2003, Craig McCaw, resigned for no apparent reason. And there is a mandated FCC EBS "substantial service" deadline of May 1, 2011 in which the FCC will start revoking EBS licenses from our community EBS anchor tenants if the spectrum is not in use. This spectrum could end up at auction lining the pockets of the highest bidder.

Probably the most intriguiging point with respect to proper policy, use and allocation of this EBS spectrum is the fact that NMU is using a part of the EBS spectrum that Clearwire or other incumbents have no interest in using. The EBS Middle Band Segment.

This middle band represents 42MHz of the 194MHz available throughout the EBS band. Clearwire (or it's partners/resellers) is only interested in the lower and higher band segments to provide their WiMAX service, or what will inevitably migrate to 4G LTE in the United States. (see diagram below)

 According to the WiMAX Forum NMU is using EBS Middle Band channels A4-G4 (2572MHz - 2602Mhz).

This is significant because a restructuring of the rules, policy and spectrum allocation in the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) band could greatly enhance not only nationwide educational services and the new criteria introduced through programs like Race to the Top and a revamped Universal Services Fund (USF) but services for our communities, libraries, local/county governments and utilities, enhanced public safety, and provide Digital Access, Inclusion & Literacy programs for low-income or underserved demographics -- all using a ubiquitous mobile wireless infrastructure. This is what Blair Levin, author of our new National Broadband Plan wants and here it is right in front of our noses.

President Obama said in his state-of-the-union address on January 25, 2011 "To reduce barriers to growth and investment, I've ordered a review of government regulations. When we find rules that put an unnecessary burden on businesses, we will fix them. (Applause.) But I will not hesitate to create or enforce common-sense safeguards to protect the American people. (Applause.)".

He also went on to say "Within the next five years, we'll make it possible for businesses to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans. This isn't just about -- (applause) -- this isn't about faster Internet or fewer dropped calls. It's about connecting every part of America to the digital age. It's about a rural community in Iowa or Alabama where farmers and small business owners will be able to sell their products all over the world. It's about a firefighter who can download the design of a burning building onto a handheld device; a student who can take classes with a digital textbook; or a patient who can have face-to-face video chats with her doctor."

Well Mr. President, here is part of the infrastructure we Americans are looking for and the opportunity for you to ask Congress to look at the Northern Michigan University model and re-address the rules and inherently flawed policies surrounding the proper and intended use and allocation of the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum... to allow our communities to define their own broadband future based on their needs and intended scales of economic recovery.

There is plenty more on this subject here.

  Download the complete summary of the 2.5GHz Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum here (PDF, 1MB)

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Brad Bowman
Founder/Program Director
AccessDelray & The OUTEACH™ Network
E: bbowman@accessdelray.org, bbowman@outeach.net
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