Wireless Network Connects Students in Rural Colorado

LOVELAND, Colo. — A rural Colorado school district recently implemented a unique solution to improve its wireless access and keep its students connected to the rest of the world. The Thompson School District in Loveland, Colo., was faced with the convergence of the digital age and the current economic state for many school districts. Needless to say, we live in an era where school budgets and modern expectations do not always align perfectly.

The district ran into a brick wall in 2001, when it outgrew the capacity of its network. Like many of his colleagues, district network systems engineer, Derrick Hoffman dreamed of laying down fiber optic cable and bringing his schools into the cutting edge of Internet access. When the estimates came back around $3.1 million to install the system, without even including ongoing maintenance fees, he had to look elsewhere.

In a district perched high up in the Rocky Mountains, with snowy weather to battle and up to 13 miles between campuses, the environment was hardly hospitable. Connecting 15,000 students over 33 campuses is a large enough task without the unique considerations facing this collection of schools.

After investigating the options, Hoffman and his district’s administrators decided to use a point-to-point wireless network designed by Motorola and provided by Anyware Network Solutions, based in Denver.

Essentially, the district was able to connect its schools through a series of wireless Ethernet bridges. These function like repeaters, which emergency services organizations use to bounce their radio signals from one hilltop to another. In locations that were separated by over a mile, or had trees and other obstructions in the way, the district installed three- or four-foot antennas, along with solar panels to power them.

“Providing our students with all the necessary tools and information, while keeping a careful eye on fiscal responsibility, is a top priority for us. Motorola’s point-to-point wireless network provided us with even more bandwidth than we expected, so we can offer our 15,000 students new and innovative Internet-based programs now and in the future,” explained Hoffman.

“In addition to overcoming non-line-of-sight challenges and delivering remarkable speed and connectivity, our installation was completed a year ahead of schedule and has saved us nearly $2 million when compared to a traditional fiber network. To say our deployment exceeded our expectations would be a gross understatement.”

The district is now able to deliver Spanish and other foreign language classes to its elementary students using video conferencing and digital media delivery systems. In the future, administrators plan to hire four Spanish teachers to teach 20 classes. Each instructor will use video conferencing systems to simultaneously deliver lectures to five classrooms full of students throughout the district at one time.