CAP Fatbeam to connect Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls School Districts with fiber

Idaho-based Fatbeam, a competitive access provider focused on underserved markets in the Pacific Northwest, says it has signed long-term agreements with the school districts of Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, ID to build fiber-optic networks and deliver support 2-Gbps broadband services. The combined contracts for the networks average 7.5 years in length and exceed $2 million in value.

“As staff and students become more and more dependent on technology in teaching and learning it becomes increasingly important that we provide a robust and reliable infrastructure,” said Jean Bengfort, IT director of the Coeur d’Alene School District.

Added John Pilmore, Post Falls School District technology coordinator, “We were already past the capacity barrier with our wireless solution and the 2-gigabit fiber network will allow us to do things we simply couldn’t do in the past.” The school’s used the FCC E-Rate program, which finances essential connectivity upgrades for schools and libraries, to help fund its contract.

Fatbeam say it also will lay fiber between the Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls markets, add fiber services to the University of Idaho Research Park in Post Falls, and extend the network to the TierPoint facility in Liberty Lake, WA, which provides data services such as colocation and cloud computing.