Today, Mission Telecom — a nonprofit that provides wireless internet hotspots primarily to schools and libraries — announced a $7 per month plan called Mission-Connect. Telecompetitor spoke with Mission Telecom Director of Broadband Operations Mark Colwell about the company’s history, goals, and the new plan.
Mission Telecom (the organization’s d.b.a. name) was founded in the 1980s as Instructional Telecommunications Foundation, Inc. Originally, the organization bought 2.5 Gigahertz spectrum licenses from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring educational television to its markets.
The FCC has changed its rules regarding spectrum licenses over the years to allow them to be used for 3G wireless internet. As a result, Mission Telecom began leasing their licenses to T-Mobile. Today, Mission Telecom provides wireless internet via the T-Mobile network.
“Most of my team has 15 to 20 years’ experience in telecom,” Colwell said. “We’re taking the best things from Verizon and AT&T and T-Mobile, and we’re bringing them into a nonprofit organization.”
The Mission of Mission Telecom: Hotspots for the Underserved and Unserved
Mission Telecom provides inexpensive wireless internet coverage to schools, libraries, and some nonprofit organizations so they, in turn, can connect underserved and unserved people. Recent federal funding challenges are making this work more difficult for schools and libraries, Colwell said.
The E-Rate program is part of the Universal Service Fund (USF). Although the constitutionality of the USF was recently upheld by the Supreme Court, Colwell says he expects Congress to cut the program within the next year and a half.
“There’s like $6.8 billion being withheld by the Trump administration for school districts. They’ve been applying for hotspots through the E-Rate program, but the Senate has already voted to eliminate that,” Colwell said. He also mentioned the Trump administration pausing the Digital Equity Act in May.
Referring to how schools and libraries are reacting, he said, “Shock is the first emotion. But now they’re [asking], ‘What’s my backup plan?’ And we wanted to come to the market with an offer that would help them keep their programs alive. We can’t get down to the $2 or $3 they’re paying out of pocket with a subsidy for E-Rate, but we can get down to $7 a month, which we think is a pretty attractive offer.”
Mission Telecom’s usual pricing for wireless internet connectivity is $20 per month for one line, with discounts when schools, libraries, and nonprofits buy at higher volumes. The $7 Mission-Connect plan for schools and libraries is a direct response to recent federal funding cuts.
The press release announcing the new plan described four key features of the plan:
- Affordable pricing: As a nonprofit, Mission Telecom offers services at rates significantly below market value.
- Nationwide coverage: The program provides access to T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network, ensuring reliable connectivity.
- Simplified implementation: Schools and libraries can bypass the typical E-Rate paperwork and red tape, streamlining the process of securing broadband services.
- Secure and compliant: The service includes Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)-compliant content filtering, safeguarding students while they access online educational resources.
Immediate Stopgaps and Future Plans
When we asked Colwell about how wireless internet compares to a wired connection, he described the wireless connections Mission Telecom provides as a more immediate solution for people who are underserved or unserved.
“We have partners that have applied for CPF [the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund] or are going to apply for BEAD funding [the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program] to provide wireline [service],” Colwell said. He went on to describe a partner in Baltimore that applied for funds to build fiber internet, a deployment that will be delayed for years by audits, permitting, and construction.
“Our solution is three to five business days” for deployment, Colwell said. “A fiber project’s going to take a lot longer. So, we’ve been trying to work with people to say, ‘In the interim, you need people to have internet now. Buy our solution and put it in these public housing units or multi-dwelling units. And then, when you get the fiber there, you can move people to fiber and take their [Mission Telecom] router to another location.’”
In the future, Mission Telecom hopes to provide wireless internet to millions of underserved and unserved people. The nonprofit also plans to launch a grant program to give back to the communities they serve.
In the meantime, schools and libraries can take advantage of the Mission-Connect plan. The deadline to apply for the Mission Telecom $7 wireless internet plan is August 1.
