Post Falls, ID – February 28th, 2013: Fatbeam, a Competitive Access Provider delivering data transport services to customers in the Western U.S., recently signed a long term agreement with the Butte School District in Montana to build a high capacity fiber optic network and deliver lit fiber services to school district facilities. The contract runs for ten years and exceeds $2M in total value. The school district plans to implement dedicated fiber optic connections between their locations that will enable them to implement technology services that were not available prior to the new deployment. The contract also includes low-cost provisions to upgrade the electronics used for the circuits should future technology warrant higher speeds. The school’s use of the FCC E-Rate program, which finances essential connectivity upgrades for schools and libraries, also made for an efficient and cost effective solution in the current environment of tight educational budgets. Although the capacity of the solution is over 240 times of that used before, the total cost to the district represented only a 5% increase over the previous provider. Fatbeam expects that the new network route will require over 16 miles of metro fiber to be constructed.
Fatbeam enjoyed extensive cooperation with the Montana Economic Revitalization and Development Institute (MERDI) in project design and will use MERDI resources to deliver high capacity Internet bandwidth to the district from the MERDI data and colocation center located in the historic Thornton Building in uptown Butte. MERDI plans to enter a long-term fiber sharing agreement with Fatbeam that will allow them to reach government and non-profit enterprises to provide essential services and access to their data facility services. The total amount of initial network investment by Fatbeam in the Butte metro area could reach $1.6M. “We hope that this project and our partnership with MERDI and its facilities will serve as a model for other high capacity networks to be built in underserved markets in Montana.”, stated Mark Lathrop, Vice President of Finance and Operations for Fatbeam.
After network completion Fatbeam will offer dark fiber and lit Ethernet data transport services on the network to business, healthcare, education, telecommunication, and government customers.
About Fatbeam
Fatbeam is a Competitive Access Provider delivering data transport services to business and enterprise, healthcare, education and government customers in the Western U.S. While competitive telecom and broadband fiber capacity are mainstream throughout larger cities in the United States, Fatbeam focuses on underserved markets. Fatbeam delivers fiber optic bandwidth beginning at 1 gigabit Ethernet, extending to 320 gigabit, and jumping to dark fiber.
Headquartered in Post Falls, Idaho, Fatbeam was co-founded by Shawn Swanby, owner of Ednetics Inc. (www.ednetics.com), and Greg Green (www.greggreen.com).
For further information, please visit our web site at www.fatbeam.com
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