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<p class="MsoNormal">Looks like the E-Rate program is going to have more money available than ever before to subsidize broadband access.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/business/fcc-chief-aims-to-bolster-internet-for-schools.html">
The FCC is poised to raise the cap another $1.5 billion/year</a>, from 2.4 billion to 3.9 billion. And there’s another $2 billion in play for the next couple years form ‘leftovers’ and due to changes being made in the program. So $5.9 billion.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those of us at the workshop at LM yesterday are ‘locked and loaded’ to make best use of that.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And it got me thinking about what is a good, target bandwidth to aspire to? Is there a formula?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The NYT article above about the cap increase references a ‘rule of thumb’ for schools in the near term of “100MB of Internet bandwidth per 1,000 students” and in the longer term 1GB per 1,000 students.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Is anyone familiar with a similar ‘rule of thumb’ or benchmark for libraries?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Such a benchmark would have a lot of caveats, for sure. Maybe you have an internal performance goal for bandwidth to the patron desktop you’d like to share?
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<p class="MsoNormal">_____________________________________<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sheryl Cormicle Knox, Technology Director<br>
Capital Area District Libraries – Administration<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">401 S. Capitol Avenue, Lansing, MI 48901-7919<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">517-367-6347 | <a href="mailto:knoxs@cadl.org"><span style="color:blue">knoxs@cadl.org</span></a>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.cadl.org/"><span style="color:blue">cadl.org</span></a><u><span style="color:blue"><o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
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