Benefits to 59 of 60 School Districts Will Also Be Felt by the Area’s Last Mile Fiber Providers
Atlanta, GA – August 13, 2024 – FiberLight, LLC, a fiber infrastructure provider with more than 20 years of experience designing, building, and operating mission-critical, high-bandwidth networks, announced a contract to build a 10 Gbps fiber optic network for the Region 16 Education Service Center (ESC), situated within the Texas Panhandle.
With the city of Amarillo as its center, Region 16 comprises 60 individual school districts and three charter schools. Its 226 campuses serve 80,000 students, spanning small districts of fewer than 30 students and others with nearly 30,000, including more than 11,000 teachers and staff. Beyond the upgrade that FiberLight’s network will bring to schools is its transformative impact on the area’s last-mile internet service providers.
The ESC benefits from the E-Rate program, overseen by the FCC. This program provides discounts to assist eligible schools and libraries in obtaining affordable internet access and telecommunications services. The connectivity that FiberLight will bring to rural communities within the panhandle aligns with and is a primary goal of the E-Rate program.
“Through this deal, we’re delivering fiber across 26,000 square miles to a vast majority of those in the Texas Panhandle,” explained Ron Kormos, Chief Strategy Officer at FiberLight. “What’s most exciting is what this connectivity will mean to the teachers, students, and staff at Region 16 schools and the long tail effect to the area’s city halls, police and fire departments, hospitals, and the private sector, which will also benefit from this investment.”
FiberLight will deliver its technical assets and expertise to Region 16. The organization is required to generate $10 million as part of its 22% of the E-Rate program, which it will work to fund through grants, local dollars, and philanthropy.
“With FiberLight’s expertise, Region 16 Education Service Center is investing in future-ready infrastructure that transcends mere connectivity,” said Michael Keough, Chief Technology Officer, Region 16. “As we strive to be an indispensable part of our community’s public service, this investment will go beyond empowering classrooms to enhance educational experiences, bolster public safety, catalyze economic growth, and foster community resilience. It’s a testament to the collaborative spirit of our region, where we’re building futures together.”
While the contract’s impetus is to bring the advantages of high-speed fiber connectivity to classrooms and student learning, it also promises new benefits to the Texas Panhandle’s businesses and residents.
“FiberLight has developed a reputation of delivering fiber to underserved, rural areas; our deployment across the Panhandle and Region 16–Texas’ most underserved area–is a model that we’re quite familiar with,” said Bill Major, CEO of FiberLight. “Initially, our fiber backbone will benefit students and educators, but in the long term, there will be a knock-on effect that will activate last-mile fiber providers to deliver fiber to area homes and businesses.”
“The leadership from Region 16 and FiberLight is building a stronger and more connected Texas. This deployment helps advance a statewide strategy for Intelligent Infrastructure which touches the day-to-day lives of each of our citizens and is crucial to competitiveness and economic prosperity,” said Jeffrey DeCoux, Chairman, Autonomy Fellow at the Autonomy Institute. “FiberLight has helped deploy critical digital infrastructure statewide, including the nation’s first Intelligent Infrastructure Economic Zone on Texas SH130.”
FiberLight will plan to break ground on the project by the first quarter of 2025. To learn more about FiberLight’s public sector projects please visit http://nqsi.2fitfashion.com/industries/public-sector/.
About Region 16
The Texas Panhandle comprises 60 school districts and three charter schools with 226 campuses in a 26,000-square-mile area. Amarillo is the economic and geographic center of the panhandle. Region 16 school districts have an average daily attendance of over 80,000 students, with individual districts ranging from fewer than 30 to more than 29,000 students and the total regional school staff numbering more than 11,400.