Colorado's largest school district, Denver Public Schools (DPS), selected Zayo Group Holdings Inc. for a dark fiber network to connect 153 schools and sites, including two DPS data centers. The 618-mile system consists of 562 miles of network in place or under construction and 56 miles of new build to leverage for follow-on tenants.
The school system requires higher-bandwidth connectivity to provide digital textbooks and tools, online standardized tests, streaming media, and online resources and applications to upgrade critical curriculum for more than 100,000 students in grades K-12. The upgrade is being funded through E-Rate, a federal program that subsidizes internet infrastructure so schools and libraries can provide high-speed Internet. This is the first year that dark fiber has been included in the program, allowing DPS to have full network control and add capacity as needed.
"Denver is the largest school district in Colorado to leverage E-Rate funded dark fiber, said John DiLacqua, director of Zayo's K-12 and E-rate segment. "Its decision sets a precedent among top-tier school districts in the country that dark fiber is a viable and economical solution for long-term bandwidth demands. As a result, the resilient, secure and high-capacity network will benefit employees and students across the district."
Zayo has deployed more than 30 E-Rate-funded links in Colorado and has additional projects completed or underway in Georgia, California, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas, Utah and Washington. The company operates 112,000 network miles in North America and Europe.
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