FirstLight Fiber will provide data center services to the New England Telehealth Consortium (NETC), a federally funded consortium of healthcare providers whose mandate is to create a shared network among rural and urban healthcare facilities across the region.
FirstLight’s Lebanon, N.H. data center will provide NETC with a high-quality, secure and reliable facility to host its clients’ mission critical network core.
“Healthcare facilities in our consortium depend on a robust communications infrastructure to securely transport mission critical information, such as electronic medical records and digital images, as well as other data that directly affects patients,” said Brian Thibeau, president of NETC. “For this reason, it is of the utmost importance that we select high quality networks, facilities and providers to entrust with our mission critical operations. FirstLight’s state-of-the-art network and data center facilities, as well as its regional expertise, provide us with reliable and secure services that we know our healthcare providers can depend on.”
NETC’s relationship with FirstLight comes as a response to a $24.7 million award to NETC from the Federal Communications Commission Rural Healthcare Pilot Program. The program’s goal is to facilitate the creation of a nationwide broadband network dedicated to healthcare, connecting public and private non-profit healthcare providers in rural and urban locations.
“As healthcare organizations strive to meet the ever-changing requirements and regulations of the industry, FirstLight is continuously evolving to keep pace with the needs of the healthcare institutions we serve,” said Kurt Van Wagenen, president and CEO of FirstLight. “FirstLight’s relationship with NETC further demonstrates our commitment to providing healthcare institutions with the comprehensive, high quality solutions required to support advanced telemedicine applications, ultimately improving the patient experience.”
