Cox Business Welcomes Students Back to School with Enhanced Communications Technology

ATLANTA, Aug. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Cox Business is helping improve the learning experience in classrooms across the nation with enterprise-grade communications technology.  School districts from Lafayette, Louisiana to Orange County, California have chosen Cox Business voice, video and data services to enable virtual learning and enhanced collaboration among students, parents and teachers. 

"We have been laser focused on delivering enhanced technology solutions to our local school systems to improve the learning experience," said Phil Meeks, Senior Vice President of Cox Business.  "Cox Business is equipped to support and enable today's most innovative learning methods while driving efficiencies across multiple schools and administrative locations with advanced data and voice services."

Cox Business is a leader in providing technology solutions to regional K-12 and higher education facilities, servicing over 5,000 schools across the country and benefiting more than 3.2 million students with a more robust learning experience.  As one of the founding members of Cable in the Classroom, a national initiative to provide schools with access to video and broadband content for learning, Cox has a long-standing commitment to education excellence.

In Arizona, the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) is relying on Cox Metro Ethernet to upgrade its bandwidth to 1G at each of the district's 33 schools and fully activate its "Bring Your Own Technology" (BYOT) program where students can use their own mobile devices of choice in the classroom.  Embracing the proliferation of mobile technology, the district wants students to use their devices for research, to engage in class discussions and to stream educational videos. Cox Business is providing a network fast enough and reliable enough to consistently manage this new level of usage.

"Every SUSD school will have wireless access so students and teachers can bring their smartphones, iPods, iPads and Android devices to school and fluidly engage with technology," explains Tom Clark, chief technology officer for SUSD. 

Tempe Elementary School District, Madison Elementary School District and Coolidge Unified School District in Arizona recently upgraded services with Cox Business as well, connecting schools within these districts with increased bandwidth for improved collaboration.   

Further east, Cox Business signed on the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, one of Louisiana's largest school systems as a new customer, and the St. Martin Parish School System recently added more bandwidth from Cox Business to enable virtual classrooms for the 2012-2013 school year. 

"Virtual classrooms allow students to take courses from home while being enrolled in the school, an option for students that may require an at-home environment but are still able to take part in sports and other extracurricular activities the school offers," said Richard Lavergne, Superintendent of the St. Martin Parish School System.  "Cox Business has been an ideal partner to help evolve our schools by adding more flexibility into our learning models." 

In addition to now serving Louisiana's two largest school systems, Cox Business also serves the Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD) with Cox Fiber Optical Network, interconnecting 23 RSD Schools in New Orleans and 46 charter schools throughout the state.  All of these locations are directly connected to the Louisiana Department of Education's network where administrators in schools and support offices manage voice, data and Internet traffic from a single network fueling maximum efficiency. 

Below are additional examples of K-12 organizations across the U.S. where Cox Business recently began working to enhance learning through technology:

• The Broken Arrow Public School (BAPS) in Tulsa, Oklahoma is counting on Cox Business' redundant fiber network to meet the bandwidth requirements of the 16,700 student school system.    
• The Saddleback Valley Unified School District (SVUSD) and Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) in Orange County, California are leveraging advanced data and IP-enabled voice solutions from Cox Business to improve collaboration among faculty and students. 
• The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) recently installed Cox Metro Ethernet and enhanced IP voice services at more than 200 locations.
• Cox Business now provides Metro Ethernet services to every K-12 entity for the Rhode Island Department of Education, including 36 school districts and 460 sites.

Meeks adds, "We are passionate about serving our local schools with the support and attention they need to be successful.  We have local resources in every Cox market designed to provide ongoing consultation and technology optimization." 

Cox Business provides voice, data and video services for more than 275,000 small and regional businesses, including healthcare providers, K-12 and higher education, financial institutions and federal, state and local government organizations. The organization also serves most of the top tier wireless and wireline telecommunications carriers in the U.S. through its wholesale division. According to Vertical Systems Group, Cox Business is one of the largest providers of business Ethernet services in the U.S. based on customer ports and has been consistently recognized for its leadership among small/midsize business data service providers. Cox is currently the seventh largest voice service provider in the U.S. and supports more than 950,000 business phone lines. For more information about Cox Business, Click Here or call 1-800-396-1609.

To view a multi-media version of this press release, click here: http://www.pitchengine.com/www.cox.com/cox-business-welcomes-students-back-to-school-with-enhanced-communications-technology

About Cox Communications:

Cox Communications is a broadband communications and entertainment company, providing advanced digital video, Internet and telephone services over its own nationwide IP network. The third-largest U.S. cable TV company, Cox serves approximately 6 million residences and businesses. Cox Business is a facilities-based provider of voice, video and data solutions for commercial customers, and Cox Media is a full-service provider of national and local cable spot and new media advertising.

Cox is known for its pioneering efforts in cable telephone and commercial services, industry-leading customer care and its outstanding workplaces. For seven years, Cox has been recognized as the top operator for women by Women in Cable Telecommunications; for five years, Cox has ranked among DiversityInc's Top 50 Companies for Diversity, and the company holds a perfect score in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. More information about Cox Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, is available at www.cox.com and www.coxmedia.com.

About Cable in the Classroom:

Cox is proud to be a founding member of Cable in the Classroom, a national initiative designed to improve education by providing complimentary access to educational cable programming. Private and public schools in the Cox footprint receive a complimentary cable connection to provide commercial-free programming each month, all geared to provide teachers with lively, curriculum-rich resources to inspire learning. Through the program, Cox provides more than 3.5 million students in 5,900 schools with more than 540 hours of commercial-free educational programming each month as a public service. A complimentary monthly Cable in the Classroom magazine, which contains programming information and study guides with lesson plans and collateral materials, is given to schools in Cox service areas as well.   

SOURCE Cox Business