Comptel Plus (Spring 2015) Day 1 Show Daily

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Beka Publishing, COMPTELPLUS | Monday, April 13, 2015 33
DAY 1
F atbeam, a competitive access provider,
announced that it won E-rate contracts
with the Bend School District in Bend,
Ore., and the Pasco School District in
Pasco, Wash., to build fiber infrastructure for ultra-
high-speed Internet.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn recently
highlighted Fatbeam during a FCC hearing on the
2015 E-rate season for championing the federal
program to “deploy and provide smaller markets
with competitive options.”
Fatbeam enters a market by building fiber
optic networks for individual school districts.
Once the network is constructed, Fatbeam is able
to offer fiber to other entities in the community
– including hospitals, banks, local government
offices, as well as telecom and Internet carriers,
driving economic development.
“Markets under 150,000 in population are
frequently lacking competitive options for fiber based
services,” said Fatbeam President Greg Green. “In addi-
tion to the school districts, Fatbeam also will invest
capital to reach the core business parks, developments
and other key facilities in our partner communities to
help drive local economic development.”
Fatbeam entered into a long-term agreement with
the Bend School District to build a high-capacity fiber
optic network 20 gigabit lit fiber services to the school
district and its 23 facilities.
“Cascade Divide operates Internet data centers
in markets such as Bend and high performance
fiber connectivity is critical to our customers’
success. Fatbeam’s dark fiber options and routes
are a perfect choice for our key clients’ connec-
tions to our data centers and infrastructure,” said
Jeff Henry, senior vice president, Cascade Divide
Data Centers. “We see Fatbeam as a strategic
partner and look forward to working with them
to create a world class fiber network for the Bend
School District.”
For the Pasco School District, Fatbeam entered
into a long-term agreement to build a high capacity
fiber optic network and deliver 20 gigabit lit fiber
services to its 24 school district facilities.
The contract reduces the school district’s cost per
megabit of fiber optic based price per meg by as much
as 94 percent as the district goes from one gigabit to
20 gigabit speeds.
The school district plans to implement a newly
constructed fiber-optic network from Fatbeam that
dedicates four fibers into each school district
location in a diverse fashion that will provide redun-
dancy and resiliency. Fatbeam is in the process of
engineering and designing its estimated 30-mile
newly constructed network.
The school’s use of the FCC E-Rate program,
which finances connectivity for schools and
libraries, also made for an efficient and cost-
effective solution in the environment of tight
educational budgets.
Fatbeam and the Pasco School District agreement
takes effect June 2016 providing plenty of time to
construct the multimillion dollar fiber investment for
the community of Pasco.
Fatbeam is the industry leader in the Pacific
Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions in delivering
fiber infrastructure for best-in-class connectivity to
schools, businesses and governments in third- and
fourth-tier markets. ❏
The company operates fiber networks inmore than
18markets spanning Idaho, Montana,Washington and
Wyoming, with additional network in development in
Oregon. For more information, visit
Fatbeam Wins E-rate Contracts for Schools