Texas State University has partnered with Anterix, private broadband network company, to establish a new 4G/5G broadband network that will cover the entire university. The school will make use of Anterix’s 900MHz broadband spectrum, making it one of only two research institutions in the nation with such a license — the other being the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado.
“We’re the only university that has such a license. We get to do research and development in 4G and 5G using 900-megahertz spectrum,” said Andres Carvallo, professor of innovation and a fellow of the Materials Applications Research Center at Texas State. “No other university is doing that.”
The Smart Networks Lab—of which the 4G/5G network is a key component—will span 700 acres of university property over time.
“This is a network that we deploy, that we own. This is not AT&T or Verizon. It’s our own network,” Carvallo said. “Performance improves dramatically when you don’t have 20 million people using the network.
