Minnesota Public Radio recently ran an article on an infrastructure upgrade on the Mayo Clinic campus…

A network of hundreds of new low-power, short-range antennas are in place throughout downtown Rochester’s underground walkway system, known as the subway.

The network will prevent dropped calls and speed up the wireless Internet for Mayo Clinic staff, giving them better access to patient records from mobile screens, AT&T said Tuesday. It “changes the dynamics for the use of technology in health care,” said AT&T Minnesota President Paul Weirtz.

Only AT&T customers can access the network currently, but other wireless carriers will be able to join in the future, a company official said.

AT&T also announced an expansion of its 4G LTE coverage to 11 additional communities in southeastern Minnesota and a $1.2 million donation to Mayo’s Proton Beam Cancer Therapy program.

First – I wish I had this capacity at my house. My cell phone (which isn’t AT&T) doesn’t work in my house. It also doesn’t work in my kids’ schools or many other places in my neighborhood. And I live in St Paul. Not a wooded suburb part of the city – I live between three college campuses. I think there are lots of areas that could use this boost.

Second – this is how we fill a Gig. I suspect Mayo Clinic is well prepared for serving broadband for work and non-work related interactions but this scenario makes me think of the schools too. This would be a great infrastructure in the schools to serve students with school computers and their own devices. And I’m a big fan of letting kids use the technology they have. My opinion was reinforced listening to an interesting webinar on Disruptive Innovations in Education: Classrooms Without Walls where Michael King, Recipient, 2012 NASSP Digital Principal Award described “digital literacy in the schools” as teaching kids the skillsets they need for the future workplace. And I have to think the future workplace is going to include some amazing iteration of the smartphone or tablet.