Here’s something you don’t encounter every day. WeLink hooked up with Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am and his i.am Angel Foundation to close the digital divide for a low-income neighborhood in Los Angeles. And the 60 GHz band is making it happen.
Specifically, it’s the Estrada Courts community, which is a low-income housing project in the Boyle Heights area of LA where will.i.am grew up. Thanks to this public/private partnership, low-income residents in the area will get access to fast internet speeds at zero cost to them.
A lot of people are familiar with students going to fast food parking lots during the pandemic to use Wi-Fi so they could do their homework. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel frequently talks about the need to close the homework gap so kids don’t have to go to parking lots to get a Wi-Fi signal.
The FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) helps WeLink pay for this service, and because WeLink’s networks are so cost-effective to deploy, it’s able to serve neighborhoods like this and do so in a sustainable way, according to WeLink Chief Innovation Officer John Paul Farmer. He previously served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as New York City’s chief technology officer.
“Ultimately what we’re doing is providing the best internet out there,” regardless of the users’ ability to pay for it, he told Fierce.
Of course, a lot of folks in the wireless industry are familiar with Starry, an innovative fixed wireless company that started off 2022 with a bang but ended the year looking for a buyer. There are some key differences between the two, and not just that they use different spectrum bands. Both use millimeter wave (mmWave) – Starry at 37 GHz and WeLink at 60 GHz – and 802.11 technology, but WeLink uses a mesh network topology whereas Starry pursued a hub and spoke model.
WeLink founder Kevin Ross spent considerable time in the early years of his career studying how to best use mmWave. He discovered that a lot of the solutions weren’t meeting the challenges they faced, which led to the design of WeLink's own hardware and software.
One of WeLink’s advisers is Arogyaswami Paulraj, professor emeritus at Stanford University who was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2022, largely for his work on multiple input multiple output (MIMO). Paulraj worked with WeLink early in its formation.
Ross said he also watched Facebook’s progress in the 60 GHz band. Facebook built a 60 GHz network in San Jose, California, and did a lot of work developing and evaluating the technology. Facebook, now Meta, has pulled back on its connectivity division since then, but they were making inroads a few years ago.
WeLink is privately owned and has raised $250 million to date, but Ross declined to talk about future funding plans or number of employees. The company currently is in six markets: Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Tucson, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Ross said he knew wireless was going to be more scalable and cost effective than fiber or cable networks. Even in the early 2000s, he was only interested in gigabit speeds and wanted to make sure whatever tech path he went down, it would be able to support future applications like VR.
“We were very excited that, at no charge to the residents at Estrada Courts, we’re giving them gig speeds,” Ross said.
What will.i.am says
While will.i.am is a rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer and rose to fame as part of the Black Eyed Peas, he’s never forgotten the neighborhood where he was raised. His charitable programs provide college scholarships, college preparation and opportunities in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics).
According to will.i.am, he was introduced to WeLink through Van Jones, a fellow black-owned business owner and investor, education advocate and news commentator. Upon meeting Ross, he was impressed and wanted to support the company.
“When Kevin showed me how WeLink could quickly and cost-efficiently deliver the best high-speed internet service in the nation via their wireless approach, we made a pact to set it up in Estrada Courts and that it would be at zero cost to the residents,” he said via email, adding that he reached out to then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) pitched in as well.
In America – the land of so many technology innovations and prosperity – there shouldn’t be a digital divide and digital have-nots, the singer/philanthropist said. He hopes that the work he’s doing with WeLink and the public-side partners in Los Angeles will inspire others to go out to the digital deserts in their areas and help connect people who urgently need internet access.