As New Jersey school systems hunker down to deal with massive state funding cuts that will slice jobs and programs, one school district is actually saving money while dramatically improving telecommunications services for 4,400 staff and students.
Wall Township Public Schools in Central New Jersey recently switched from long-time telecommunications provider Verizon to new-kid-on-the-block Cablevision Systems' Optimum Lightpath. The result: $80,000 a year in annual savings and a 33 percent increase in broadband connectivity. The school district is replacing an antiquated 3 Mbps ATM link with a fiber-fed 100 Mbps link that is shared among its seven schools.
"When I compared what I had--3 Mbps with all the PRIs and other junk that went along with it--to the price of a 100 Mbps pipe eliminating the actual physical ATM circuits and consolidating all of our billing into one flat rate... that gave us a savings of over $80,000 a year," said Jeff Janover, director of technology for the school district. "We were not happy about having to spend anything extra. Budgets in New Jersey are being slashed left and right."
It's almost enough to make Gov. Chris Christie put down his hatchet for a moment.
For more:
- see this release
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