Will Construct 58 Miles of Fiber to Modernize Wireless Infrastructure in Bend, OR and Pasco, WA
Spotlighted by FCC for Creating Competitive Fiber Options for Rural Communities
Orlando, FL – Comptel – April 13, 2015 – Fatbeam, a competitive access provider, today announced winning E-rate contracts with the Bend-La Pine School District in Bend, Oregon, and the Pasco School District in Pasco, Washington, to build fiber infrastructure for ultra-high-speed Internet. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn recently highlighted Fatbeam during an 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 fully constructed in that district, 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 addition to the school districts, Fatbeam will also invest capital to reach the core business parks, developments and other key facilities in our partner communities to help drive local economic development.”
Bend-La Pine School District – Bend, Oregon Fatbeam has entered into a long-term agreement with the Bend-La Pine School District to build a high capacity fiber optic network to deliver 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 customer’s success. Fatbeam’s dark fiber options and routes are a perfect choice for our key clients’ connections to our data centers and infrastructure,” said Jeff Henry, SVP, 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-La Pine School District.”
Pasco School District – Pasco, Washington Fatbeam has entered into a long-term agreement with the Pasco School District 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% as the district goes from one gigabit to twenty 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 redundancy and resiliency.
Fatbeam is in the process of engineering and designing its estimated 30-mile 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 current environment of tight educational budgets. Fatbeam and the Pasco School District agreement takes effect June of 2016, providing plenty of time to construct the multi- million dollar fiber investment for the community of Pasco.
ABOUT FATBEAM
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 3rd and 4th tier markets. The company currently operates fiber networks in more than 18 markets spanning Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming with additional network in development in Oregon. For more information, visit www.fatbeam.com.
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Press Contact: Debra Benson, Illume PR fatbeam@illumepr.com 310.595.0646