BellSouth links Louisiana school district with fiber-optic network

May 10, 2005 Opelousas, LA -- In southwest Louisiana, the St. Landry Parish school board has linked most of its 39 schools, as well as the parish school board office, with a fiber-optic network. BellSouth built the network in four months, installing a 100-Mbit/sec circuit at each of 34 school locations, as well as two Gigabit Ethernet circuits at the school board's office. Each location in the district is connected to BellSouth's telephone switching offices using fiber-optic cable.

The school board's offices in Opelousas, as well as 34 schools located in areas served by BellSouth, are connected to the fiber-optic network. The first schools were connected in January 2005; the last schools were connected in March. Pending approval of e-rate funding this summer, five remaining schools, in areas served by CenturyTel, will be linked into the network early next year.

About 85% of the cost of the $3.5 million project, which includes equipment, installation and five years of service, was covered by e-rate funding, a state grant program for providing schools and libraries with discounted access to telecommunications services. The percentage of funding for state institutions is determined by the percentage of school children who are eligible for assisted lunch. The district's request for e-rate funding began in December 2003, when the school system issued a request for broadband services. The school system signed a contract with BellSouth in February 2004, pending e-rate funding approval. The state's Schools and Libraries Division awarded e-rate funding to the district in July 2004, and an initial meeting between the school system and BellSouth was held in August 2004.

"St. Landry is the first parish in Southwest Louisiana to embark on such a tremendous undertaking, and we are extremely pleased with the results," remarks Eddie Landry, computer technician/operations data processing for St. Landry Parish School Board.

"As a result of this project, about 30 miles of additional fiber have been placed throughout the parish - basically going out to every major neighborhood in the parish," adds John Williams, BellSouth's regional manager for Southwest Louisiana. "This will make it more economical for local businesses as well as consumers to access high-speed Internet services throughout the parish."

Previously the school system had a T1 frame network, which according to Landry provided limited bandwidth. Prior to the decision to install a fiber-optic network, the school system briefly considered a wireless connectivity platform, notes Landry.

"Fiber is more secure and more reliable than wireless," he continues. "BellSouth's fiber-optic solution also provided more bandwidth, and allows us to upgrade the system as needed."

"The partnership between BellSouth and St. Landry Parish school system has lessened the digital divide so prevalent among rural, low-socioeconomic school systems across this state," concludes Mary Handayan, the district's supervisor of technology.