Conterra to Deliver High-Speed Broadband Services to West Texas Students

CHARLOTTE, N.C. and LUBBOCK, Texas, July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Conterra Broadband Services, a national broadband services company specializing in rural areas, has been awarded a multi-year contract to provide high-quality, high-speed wide area network services to the Texas Region 17 Education Service Center Consortium for 41 member independent school districts and charter schools. The hybrid broadband network is a combination of fiber optic and FCC-licensed microwave radio design which will upgrade the service currently provided by the consortium's low bandwidth network to a state-of-the art Ethernet based, wide area broadband network connecting member districts to Region 17's administration building located in Lubbock.  The telecommunication services provided by Conterra are supported through the federal Universal Service E-Rate program which subsidizes a large portion of the consortium members costs of utilizing the new services.

Conterra's managed broadband networks support the convergence of integrated data, video and voice services on single circuits allowing the consolidation of multiple service providers to a single source of performance accountability. Conterra monitors, manages and supports its networks on a 24x7x365 basis and guarantees network performance and reliability. Conterra's network services will be used to support Region 17's Internet Access and videoconferencing network which provides student credit courses, virtual field trips, graduate degrees and certifications for district staff members along with professional development support. In addition, consortium members have the option under the contract to receive Conterra provided Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) Services.

"Due to the vast size and geographic location of our independent school districts, ubiquitous high-speed broadband services have not been readily available to the majority of our school districts," according to Region 17 Executive Director Dr. Kyle Wargo. "Consequently we formed an endeavor that will provide each school district with a minimum of 20 Mbps of bandwidth through Conterra's carrier class broadband network. Distance learning, video quality, speed, and increased bandwidth in our districts will allow our students to explore educational opportunities that have not been available to them in the past. We believe Conterra provides the best plan for the ESC 17 network design, including increased bandwidth in future years," added Dr. Wargo.

The Region 17 Wide Area Network services contract is the latest of four major E-Rate telecommunications contracts awarded to Conterra in Texas. Similar Conterra high-speed broadband network projects have been completed for the Region 10, 14 and 15 Educational Service Centers that currently provide carrier grade broadband services to 125 school districts.

"Conterra is excited to bring high-quality broadband connectivity to Region 17 independent school districts," commented Dennis Francis, Conterra's President and Chief Operating Officer.  "This will now bring the total number of Texas school districts we serve to approximately 166, assuring that hundreds of thousands of K-12 students residing in rural areas of Texas have access to high-speed Internet Access and enjoy the bandwidth needed for on-line learning at performance levels comparable to those enjoyed by schools in the state's largest metropolitan areas," added Mr. Francis.

About Conterra Broadband Services

Conterra Broadband Services, headquartered in Charlotte, NC, is a national provider of facilities-based broadband services for schools, wireless carriers, municipalities and select enterprises that require bandwidth intensive, carrier-grade data, video and voice transport services primarily in outer suburban and rural markets. Conterra and its subsidiaries currently provide these services to over 1,100 K-12 schools, colleges and commercial enterprises throughout the United States, affording state-of-the-art broadband services to hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, administrators and business leaders. For more information about Conterra, visit www.conterra.com or call Van Snowdon at: 800-634-1374.

SOURCE Conterra Broadband Services