School Districts, Universities
School districts occupy a sort of grey area.
Sometimes they are corporations, sometimes they are part of
the local government, and sometimes they are something else.
School districts can be licensed for either
Business/Industrial or Public Safety frequencies, depending
upon their particular situation. Public school
districts, parochial schools, community colleges, business
schools, and universities all have their own particular
radio needs. Many larger school districts utilize
microwave systems to allow access to student records,
provide internet access, and provide online learning
capabilities to schools in extremely remote locations.
Every one of these needs has its own set of licensing
requirements, and RLS can walk
you through it!
Facilities Maintenance
Facilities maintenance personnel use radios in their work
maintaining and repairing the buildings and grounds.
Larger school districts with their own centralized
maintenance staff and university and college campuses with
their own devoted facilities department both require
Business/Industrial
licensing for their two-way radios. Licensing is quick
and straightforward. Contact
our office for more information.
Security
Teachers, hall monitors, administration, and security
personnel need to be able to communicate to protect the
safety of both the students and the staff. Smaller
school districts would probably utilize
Business/Industrial
channels. Universities often have their own dedicated
Campus Security or Safety department and would probably
require Public Safety
channels. Some high schools and community colleges are
somewhere in between, and your licensing will depend on your
needs and your eligibility.
Contact RLS to discuss which is right for you.
Educational Broadband Service
This band is also known as EBS, and is a band allocated
especially for educational use. This is an educational
service that is typically used for the transmission of
instructional material to accredited educational
institutions and non-educational institutions such as
hospitals, nursing homes, training centers, and
rehabilitation centers. This band ranges from
2495-2690 MHz (2.4-2.6 GHz), and creates distinct band
segments for high-power operations such as one-way video
transmission, and low power operations such as two-way fixed
and mobile broadband applications. The EBS facilitates
the growth of wireless broadband services that have the
potential to compete with cable and DSL broadband providers,
and to extend broadband service to rural and underserved
areas. This typically consists of a series of
Point-to-Point (PTP) licenses.
EBS licenses are designated as a P35 Geographic Service
Area (GSA). A P35 license generally consists of the
station’s 35-mile radius around the protected service area
coordinates. In those instances where two stations
with overlapping Geographic Service Areas (GSAs), the GSA of
each license may be reduced by a “splitting the football”
approach to divide the overlap area between the licensees.
EBS licensees may also lease underutilized spectrum to
other users, provided they meet the minimum requirements for
educational use specified by the FCC. This could allow
rural school districts (which are chronically short on
operating funds) to lease spectrum to local Public Safety
groups, local businesses, or individuals to provide
broadband services (such as internet access) to rural
regions that are not yet served by the large telecoms and
ISPs. Call RLS to learn
more about this opportunity.
E-Rate Program
This is also known as the Universal Service Administrative
Company Schools and Libraries Fund. E-Rate is a system
of discounts to aid in the implementation of radio systems
by schools and libraries by reducing the costs of broadband
service. This is usually done between the applicant
and the USAC.
Learn more here.
Radio and Television Stations
Many schools and colleges have small on-campus radio
stations or television stations. We can help you
obtain a license for your school. Or perhaps you want
to start a Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) radio station
for your local area. Either way, we can help.
Contact RLS for more information.
Microwave Systems
Microwave is an integral part of many school districts.
Larger districts use them transmit large amounts of data.
One use would be to allow district-wide access to student
records, another would be to allow realtime accounting of
financial or payroll information. Districts that
operate over very large areas (like Alaska, the Midwest, the
Southwest, or the northern Central states) may also use
microwave to bring the classroom to the students by way of
online or televised learning courses.
Contact RLS to learn more about
what is available.
70/80/90 GHZ
This special microwave band
is useful for schools with many campuses that are located
relatively close together, such as community colleges and
some rural school districts.
This is known as the Millimeter Service and is also known as E-Band. E-Band
is a type of PTP used for short-haul applications. Licensing entails
obtaining a single license for the system, and then the
individual paths or links need to be registered with the
frequency coordinator, which reduces costs and time.
Since the Millimeter Service is quite new, there are very
few licensed operators at this time.
RLS can provide licensing and
registration for your E-Band system.
