The real cost of connecting a school to Wi-Fi

As more schools move to equip all students with a computer, one cost is often overlooked -- getting those computers connected to the network grid.

The Los Angeles Unified school district is planning to spend over $500 million to upgrade servers, pull wire and connect antiquated schools to a data grid -- a necessary part of its huge effort to supply 700,000 students and teachers with an iPad. The price tag is high, says Joe Monaley, a network engineer at Caltech, because costs start far from the building, out on the street. It’s not as simple as plugging in a modem and router for a home connection: it's a challenge just to get high-capacity classrooms wired, much less connect whole schools directly to the grid. The district has 486 of its approximately 800 campuses scheduled for modernizations before the end of 2014 with an average sticker price of $736,000.