High-speed Network Connect and Inspire Utah Schools and Clinics
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- CenturyLink GeoMax DWDM networking technology
Tech Stack
- Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology
- Fiber optic cabling
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Digital Expertise
Technology Category
- Networks & Connectivity - Ethernet
Applicable Industries
- Education
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Use Cases
- Campus Area Network
- Remote Collaboration
Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
The Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) is a growing initiative that was originally conceived as an analog system for interactive video conferencing. It has since evolved into a high-speed network connecting public and higher education from the smallest school to the largest university. The Network now includes applied technology colleges, libraries, and healthcare clinics. Education remains the organization’s largest initiative with 41 school districts and dozens of charter schools. If UETN were a single school district it would rank just behind New York and Los Angeles serving more than 630,000 public school students. UETN also serves more than 200,000 students in college and more than 60,000 faculty and staff from kindergarten teachers to college professors. It empowers educators to extend the classroom well beyond the four walls of the school. With UETN, students can take for-credit college courses via teleconferencing, access a Learning Management System and do research with a digital library that includes journal articles, photos, graphics, maps, and video.
The Challenge
The Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) was conceived as an analog system for interactive video conferencing, but it has evolved into a high-speed network connecting public and higher education from the smallest school to the largest university. The Network now includes applied technology colleges, libraries, and healthcare clinics. The challenge was to connect school districts, state-run colleges, and clinics with a resource-sharing network providing education and healthcare across the state. The state's smaller communities are spread among three different areas: the Rocky Mountains, the high brush and canyon area of the Colorado Plateau in the south and east, and the Basin and Ridge Region that contains both the Great Salt Lake and one of the driest deserts in the United States. About 12 percent of Utah citizens live in these rural areas. That's about 360,000 people among Utah's nearly 3 million residents.
The Solution
UETN built their network on the CenturyLink GeoMax networking platform running over dedicated fiber optic cabling. GeoMax uses Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology to vastly expand the available bandwidth and flexibility of fiber cabling. The GeoMax technology creates multiple circuits that run independently of each other over the same fiber infrastructure while ensuring security and high speed. GeoMax is a dedicated network set up on a custom basis so bandwidth can be allocated as needed. By leasing such bandwidth, UETN also qualifies for federal E-rate, an FCC program that provides substantial discounts to public education and rural healthcare. CenturyLink and its predecessors have long partnered with the Network to bring greater bandwidth to education. Twenty years ago US West (now CenturyLink) established fiber-optic circuits between UEN (the Utah Education Network, the UETN’s predecessor) at the University of Utah and Utah State University in Logan. That paved the way for similar broadband across the state.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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