Local schools could see a boost in their bandwidth next school year after the Santa Clara County Office of Education reported plans to connect districts via high-speed fiber-optic cable.
The project aims to connect most school districts in Silicon Valley to the Office of Education data center using dark fiber – the unused fiber-optic cable installed by companies to avoid costs of having to do it again when there is an additional need for fiber-optic cable.
The dark fiber network would enable Santa Clara County school districts to connect to the internet at speeds limited only by the equipment schools use, making the process of increasing bandwidth simpler and more cost effective. The design of the project also would provide a measure of resiliency, in the event of cuts or disruption to the fiber-optic cabling in certain portions of the network.
The project is funded in part through the Universal Service Administration Co. and the federal E-rate program, which provides discounted telecommunications, internet access and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries.
In applying for funding, the Office of Education formed an E-rate Consortium and recently received approval. The Office of Education began working with its vendors to begin construction in June, and the project is expected to be completed by November 2018.
