Schools are connecting to a new high-speed broadband network faster than first anticipated, Mark Myers, director of the Department of Information Systems, told lawmakers Monday.
When the project is completed, Arkansas will become one of three states with high-speed broadband in every school building, he said. The department has also managed to secure a contract for the two school districts that did not receive a bid last year.
"We are moving to the top of the class in connectivity," Myers said.
More than 20 companies have been working to convert the network from copper wire to high-speed, fiber-optic cable, which will transmit information via pulses of light rather than electricity.
Lack of high-speed access has caused problems at schools as more standardized tests are moved to online formats. Also, Act 1280 of 2013 requires that every school district provide at least one interactive online course.
Of the 276 state school districts, 148 were connected to the new Arkansas Public School Computer Network as of last month, Myers told lawmakers. The remaining schools will be connected this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2017.
He said the state had originally planned to connect 126 schools by the end of June.
Upgrades to the network will cost $49 million in total -- though the federal government is picking up about 80 percent of that cost.
Myers noted that schools are receiving a speedier network for less money with the new network.
When the improvements are completed, the new network will cost $6.7 million per year in transport costs and Internet fees for a total bandwidth of 158,500 megabits per second.
The old network -- plus private providers with whom districts contracted because the state network provided insufficient bandwidth -- cost $9.7 million per year. Between the state network and private providers, schools received a total bandwidth of 71,549 megabits per second.
"I want to take this unique opportunity -- since I tend to be so critical -- to say it looks like y'all have done a really good job," Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, told Myers during the joint Education Committee meeting.
Lawmakers around the room then applauded.
After the meeting, Myers detailed how the department finally found a way to connect Cleveland County School District and Woodlawn School District to the new network.
More than a year ago, the department announced that every school district in the state was under contract to receive the new broadband service -- except those two districts.
TDS Telecommunications -- the local Internet service provider -- did not initially bid to do the work.
However, the company sold its Cleveland County operations to ARK-O, a division of SGO Broadband based in Seneca, Mo. The change in ownership became effective Jan. 1.
The department was able to work with the new owners and Windstream, which maintains a hub for other school connections in Fordyce.
"We pieced the agreement together ourselves using the vendors we knew had their footprints together to make it work," Myers said.
Metro on 07/19/2016