The Governor’s Utah Economic Summit

The Role of the Utah Education Network in Providing Broadband

for Utah’s Future

March 28, 2011

The Relationship between broadband infrastructure and economic

development

● To be competitive and innovative in the 21st century, communities must put broadband at the forefront of economic development

● Broadband allows regions and communities to compete globally, attracting new firms, investments and jobs.

● Utah communities without broadband will find themselves left out of the digital revolution.

● Local and state economic development plans must recognize the vital role of broadband infrastructure improvements.

Community anchor institutions and broadband infrastructure development

● Every community should have affordable access to at least 1 gigabit per second broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings.

● Broadband connections at these community anchor institutions serve as the springboard to residential and business access to broadband services.

Utah Education Network plays an “Anchor Tenant” role in expanding

broadband access

● UEN is an educational technology partnership of public and higher education, providing educational technology services statewide.

● Governed by UEN Steering Committee with equal representation of higher education and public education. Governor, legislature, and state library system also represented.

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UEN’s Core Responsibility

● The network is a public-private partnership between UEN and Utah telecommunications providers.

● UEN does not own the network. We lease circuits from telecommunications companies using multi-year contracts.

• To provide a statewide wide area network with robust and reliable connectivity to the Internet for every public school and college, and every public library.

UEN is an anchor tenant for independent telecom providers

● We enter into long-term contracts with independent telecom providers to lease backbone and middle mile fiber segments

● Network services are provided by UEN with no cost to the school districts and colleges and universities.

● Network and Internet services qualify for federal E-Rate reimbursements which cover about 70% of the cost.

● Telecom providers rely on UEN-leased infrastructure and revenue from our long-term contracts to expand broadband capabilities to residential and business customers throughout their communities.

UEN’s leased circuits benefit education, communities and business

Utah State University offers an Excellent Example of Savings

County-level network example

Utah County

UEN Goal: high capacity fiber to every college and university and public school

and library in Utah

● All public colleges and universities connect to UEN with at least gigabit fiber connections

● All public high schools and middle schools connect to UEN, most with gigabit fiber connections

● Most elementary and charter schools have at least 100 mb/sconnections

● 150 elementary and charter schools and most public libraries do not have fiber connectivity

Community Impact of UEN Network Connections

● Approximately 810 community educational anchor institutions are now connected to UEN network with gigabit fiber.

● This benefits the entire community:

● About 219,000 households and thousands of businesses are adjacent to these community anchor institutions, and can take advantage of these fiber improvements

What Tasks Remain to Complete Statewide Network Goal?

● There remain about 265 community educational anchor institutions that still have T-1 copper network connections

● That’s equivalent to one DSL or cable modem connection being shared by everyone using the school or library.

● 150 elementary and charter schools

● 60 public libraries

● 55 Head Start centers

UEN received $17.5 Million NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunity

Program Grant

● Major goal: connect schools, libraries, head start centers with 100 to 1000 mb/s fiber connections

● 105 Locations will be connected: elementary and charter schools, libraries, and head start centers

● Because of savings, we are now requesting approval to add about 70 more sites and 2 important backbone segments

KSL-TV coverage of news conference to announce award

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9851502

Status of BTOP Project

● Construction, installation, circuit turn-up is finished or underway at 40 sites

Rose Springs Elementary

Jordan Hills Elementary

Community Impact of Current and Future UEN Network Projects

● More than 70,000 households and a thousand businesses are adjacent to community anchor institutions in our funded NTIA BTOP project.

● Broadband services will be improved and made affordable for all of these residential and business customers

UEN isn’t Just a network provider

● We provide essential services for education using the statewide network and Internet

● Interactive video-conferencing

● Hosting web and network enterprise applications and web resources

● Technology training for teachers

Interactive Video Conferencing

An Internet-based video-conferencing system broadcasting 220 events per day to 750 locations statewide to thousands of students. Staff increasingly use the system for administrative meetings and professional training.

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Hosting Enterprise Applications, Web Resources

● More than 120,000 Utah college students and instructors use UEN’sCourse Management System each day to access their classes online

● Utah Electronic High School

● Over 2 million log-ins monthly by K-12 and college students to Pioneer Online Library.

● Web services delivered at http://www.uen.org. are essential for Utah teachers and students.

● Monthly, there are about 1.3 million visits to UEN web resources.

Technology Training, UEN-TV

● Professional development courses are relied on by thousands of Utah teachers for licensure certification and to improve their technology skills.

● KUEN-TV broadcasts a rich schedule of instructional programming statewide.

● Cooperating with the State Office of Education and Regional Service Centers, UEN offers training in 80+ technology related topics.