INDIANAPOLIS — COVID-19 has forced the closure of Indianapolis schools until early January, but significant numbers of families struggle to access remote instruction because they lack high-speed Internet at home.
To help bridge this connectivity gap and build toward a comprehensive solution, the City of Indianapolis is helping support the launch of a $1.7 million network pilot in February to connect students at six public schools with high-speed internet to enable eLearning. If proven successful in the pilot stage, the Marion County Dedicated Network Pilot could be scaled up to serve public school students countywide as soon as early 2022.
The City is funding the pilot with federal CARES Act funding, which is dedicated to offsetting the impacts of the pandemic. The Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc. and the Indiana 5G Zone contributed to the pilot. Those philanthropic contributions were made to the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Foundation.
Two nonprofits with extensive experience in managing technology pilot projects, Energy Systems Network and Indiana 5G Zone, will implement the pilot, and SBA Communications will provide the network infrastructure and services. The Marion County Dedicated Network Pilot will run through September. Following this initial phase, partners and funders will decide whether to scale it to full, countywide capacity.
The network will be piloted at six schools that were chosen based on geographic distribution and ability to optimize signal coverage: George Washington High School in Indianapolis Public Schools; Harrison Hill Elementary School in Lawrence Township; Southport Elementary School and Winchester Village Elementary School in Perry Township; and two public charter schools, Riverside High School and Vision Academy.
Ivy Tech Community College’s Indianapolis campus also will be part of the pilot.
The network will allow for up to 1,500 WiFi hotspots and 2,000 video call users.