Top digital district expands telecommunications capabilities

Recognized in 2009 as one of the nation's best digital school districts, New Jersey's Howell Township School District was quickly outgrowing its ATM network. As overall Internet connectivity and connections between buildings slowed significantly, the district could no longer implement new technologically advanced initiatives for its 12 schools, 6,800 students and 1,500 teachers. Clearly a new telecommunications system was needed.

To address their IT, operational and educational challenges, Howell Township School District administrators decided to replace the inadequate T1 ATM technology with an advanced Ethernet-based Private Fiber Network. They chose Optimum Lightpath to provide the technology, which runs at gigabit speeds. The district increased its bandwidth from 6 megabits to 50 megabits, enabling faster, more efficient support of advanced digital education applications for less.

"Optimum Lightpath has given us a great solution, and economically, it's been a great decision," said Tom Aquino, Howell Township School District Director of Information Technology. "Now we are exploring all kinds of things we could not do before: using teleconferencing, conducting video conferencing with NASA and the national archives, deploying SMART Boards, using WebEx to increase efficiencies, and using podcasts for teaching and research. Service has been solid as a rock and we look forward to using it more and more."