[Sly Fox]

This came out of nowhere from my perspective. But it is very intriguing.

Liberty University and the Virginia School of Arts have created a joint venture called the Lynchburg Education Broadband Joint Venture with the goal of developing a wireless broadband internet service to the Lynchburg region. This effort has resulted in an Request for Proposal to develop four EBS license channels into a WiMax broadband service. The Joint Venture has secured the services of Airewire, a management consulting and engineering firm, to coordinate the RFP.

Click Here for Full Access to Legal applications

Here is the PR Newswire release:

Liberty University and Virginia School of the Arts announce RFP for EBS Spectrum License Lease

LYNCHBURG, Va., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A joint venture
formed by Liberty University and Virginia School of the Arts is offering
four EBS license channels for lease in the Lynchburg, VA. area. The RFP is
being coordinated by AireWire, Inc., a management and engineering
consulting company from Atlanta, GA. Copies of the RFP are available
on-line at https://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=16350. A pre-submission
online conference will be held on February 18, 2008 at 2:00 PM EDT.
Interested parties can register their intention to bid by joining the RFP
mailing list at http://airewire.com/mailman/listinfo/jvrfp_airewire.com.

Click Here for Full Release

[TylerBakersGonnaBGreat]

Already Posted in the Courtyard

[LUconn]

move that one over here. It's more Lynchburg related.

[Hold My Own]

SCORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRCHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY



WHERE ARE YOU!

[LUconn]

obviously, he is in an internetless basement trying to make this venture happen.

[LUconn]

http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/business ... ools/5887/

WiMAX service on hold for two area schools



Two local schools have put on hold the selection of a company to bring a new wireless Internet service to Lynchburg.

A Liberty University official said the deal is waiting for Sprint and Clearwire to complete the formation of their new, national WiMAX network.

Meanwhile, discussions with other service providers that have expressed interest are ongoing.

A WiMAX system is an emerging wireless Internet technology that offers better security and signal range than WiFi.

In February, Liberty University and Virginia School of the Arts announced a partnership to bring the service to Lynchburg.

Sooo Clearwire bid on the project, but is doing nothing with it... sounds like a top notch organization they've got there.

[Kolzilla41]

LUconn,

You are my hero. It makes me giggle like a little girl when you rip stuff apart. Thanks for keeping us entertained.

[Hold My Own]

LUconn,

You are my hero. It makes me giggle like a little girl when you rip stuff apart. Thanks for keeping us entertained.

me too...unless it's my posts he's ripping apart

[Rocketfan]

LUconn,

You are my hero. It makes me giggle like a little girl when you rip stuff apart. Thanks for keeping us entertained.

I know who you are.....and you do giggle like a little girl...hahahah

[LUconn]

it's nice to know my hard work is appreciated.

[LUconn]

So, uhh, what ever happened to this?

[El Scorcho]

I'm not sure if I can say anything about the LU-specific venture.

I will say that WiMax has pretty much lost in the industry as a 4G signal standard. Infer from that what you will.

[LUconn]

I will infer that Clearwire never got off their duff and essentially wasted an opportunity.

[LUconn]

seriously what is the deal with this thing?

I found this article from last year
http://www.goingwimax.com/digitalbridge ... 6973-6973/

DigitalBridge to Increase WiMax Coverage in Lynchburg Area!

DigitalBridge plans to roll out its service in the Lynchburg area in 2010. For some in rural Virginia this could be their first chance to have high-speed Internet, for others it may simply mean more options in terms of broadband Internet access.

In 2008, Liberty University and Virginia School of the Arts announced that they wanted to lease out some educational broadcast licenses in the Lynchburg area. They requested proposals from several companies to provide wireless Internet access in the region. DigitalBridge, which has recently launched its WiMax service in Appomattox was one of the bidders.

So they've got a month to go.

And I don't know if El Scorcho still reads this board but does that comment still hold true that you made 2 posts above this one? I thought "4G" was essentially done through wimax.

[SumItUp]

The company plans to apply for stimulus money to build infrastructure in underserved rural parts of nearby counties. The federal stimulus bill contains $7.2 billion for broadband deployment.

Even though the article did not describe it this way, it is possible that Digital Bridge was counting on the federal funding / stimulus money to get this done. I have applied for these grants in the past to provide high speed internet to serve rural areas. I would have expanded our my company's network in multiple areas if we had received the grants. Without the grants, the network expansion would have operated at a loss.

[Hold My Own]

Sumitup, funny how we were just discussing you going into this venture a couple weeks ago with your business. You're correct, a Govt grant is really the only logical way to make something like this worth while (from a financial only stand point).

What a great project for our new school of engineering to get involved with, this could instantly give them creditability as a research school, if we went forward with this.

Sumitup, as you found out, Govt grants are no joke. I know you dont think this but a lot of people think they are a gov't "hand out" when in all actuality a lot of the challenges come after you've received the money (which is really hard to get without political influence).....one of the challenges is the grant wont cover but a portion of the project financially. Then you need to continue to update on "good use of the funds" and show them how you are using them.

I know 1% of what JLFjr would be able to add. I'd actually be interested to hear any corrections in my post from anyone familiar with them b/c grants really intrigue me (more so on a foundation standpoint).