UCSD Upgrades Entire Telecommunications Network

Utica, NY (WIBX) - Students, teachers and administrators in the Utica City School District system have a lot more bandwidth to use the World Wide Web these days. A partnership with Northland Communications resulted in an upgrade to the districts entire telecommunications network.

Superintendent James Willis says the system was in need of an upgrade for a better educational experience. "We had 100 Meg  capability throughout the district, but what was happening is, many of our schools, with the technology that is going on in the classrooms, we were exceeding that bandwidth. And what happens is, it slows everything down, so the kids can't do all the video streaming for example,  it was impossible to do any kind of distance learning," Willis said.

He says increasing the bandwidth will allow teachers and students to do a lot more with distance learning. Also, he says back office operations will be more efficient thanks to the upgrade. Willis says Northland Communications provided the best pricing option for the project. The District was charged an e-rate, which means it can get up to 88-cents back from every dollar it spent for the upgrade.

Willis says the project, which was completed in April, was made possible after the Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued by Madison-Oneida BOCES. It was financed through a $87 million capital project fund for technology and was the second largest grant of its kind in the state. Willis added that the money was provided in large part by the state but added that some funding also came from the federal government. Northland Communications is a local company that specializes in advance networking solutions.