Schools look skyward for internet service, building their own cell towers
The Dallas Independent School District is used to providing internet service to students when they’re on school property. But it’s never had something quite like the 90-foot towers going up at a handful of schools in the district — its first foray into building its own network of cellular transmission towers. Like a growing number of school districts across the country, spurred in part by the coronavirus pandemic, the Dallas school system has recently gotten into the cell tower business. “It’s kind of like renting versus owning,” said Jack Kelanic, chief technology officer for the district. The district has been renting at a steep price. It’s been buying mobile internet hotspots for 40,000 students this school year as a short-term measure to keep them connected while taking classes at home. Each one cost about $25 a month, he said, sending the district searching for a longer-term idea. Jack Kelanic.Dallas Independent School DistrictThe solution they decided on was to take the district’s wholesale internet service — it has had a fiber-optic network for a decade — and broadcast it for free to the neighborhoods most in need. It’s a decision that demonstrates not only the lengths to which schools are going to try to
